Chau Doc, Vietnam
What a great day we had today in the colorfully busy and endlessly interesting border town of Chau Doc. Just 20 miles from the Cambodian border, Chau Doc sits on the Bassac River, a major Mekong distributary in the delta. It has a population of 120,000 but those residents seem to have the energy of at least 240,000. Frenetically busy buying and selling and working and socializing and just living, the people of Chau Doc make this river port town quintessentially Vietnamese in the vibrancy and indefatigability that it emanates. Formerly Khmer territory, as is all of the Mekong Delta, Chau Doc is a melting pot today with a harmonious mix of Viets, Khmer, and Cham from the former Kingdom of Champa in south-central Vietnam—thus the town hosts a mix of Mahayana Buddhists, Theravada Buddhists, and Muslims, respectively. (The Cham were originally an Indianized Hindu Kingdom for hundreds of years but converted to Islam in the 17th century, not long after the Vietnamese conquest.)
We took sampans from the Jahan and cruised through a bustling floating market, which gave us a preview of the incredible profusion of fruits and vegetables that we were to see in full glory in Chau Doc’s bustling market later in the morning. We docked at a floating fish farm to learn about the aquaculture of basa catfish, the town’s major industry. We learned about the operational aspects and economics of aquaculture in the floating world, and witnessed the frenzy of 120,000 fish at feeding time. We then headed into town for a kaleidoscopic introduction to the city on cyclo bicycle rickshaws—the vitality and industriousness of the city’s residents were evident at every turn. After our cyclo odyssey we paid a visit to the town’s colorful temple dedicated to local hero Nguyen Huu Canh, a 17th-century military general and political leader who led the Viet forces that overwhelmed the Khmers and brought the Mekong Delta under Vietnamese suzerainty. At this point we were ready to fully explore the amazing Chau Doc market with its vast diversity of produce of every shape, color and size. Beautiful winter melons and tiny eggshell-white eggplants, succulent dragonfruit and fleshy mangosteen, luscious milk fruit and tangy roseapple, compact exotic rambutan, and enormous sweet-smelling jackfruit—it just went on and on in an endless array of manna from the Mother Mekong.
Back on board ship we had a savory Vietnamese lunch and traversed the Tan Chau channel to rejoin the mainstream Mekong before heading north into Cambodia. In the late afternoon we had the singular pleasure of hearing our congenial traveling companion and esteemed former Canadian Ambassador to Cambodia, Gordon Longmuir, deliver a superb talk entitled “Cambodia: A Failed State Recovers.” Gordon’s decades of rich experience in Southeast Asia, his close personal contacts with history-making figures such as King Sihanouk, and his keen insights and ready wit made for a most engrossing and enjoyable presentation.
We passed through the border seamlessly thanks to excellent preparations by the Jahan staff. After cocktails on deck we enjoyed a recap and briefing, which included a short overview entitled “What is Indochine?” by Gordon Longmuir, followed by my brief presentation on betelnut-chewing in Vietnam and its medical and cultural correlates, and concluding with a thorough briefing by Jen on our very full and exciting upcoming day in Cambodia’s charming capital of Phnom Penh tomorrow.
The award-winning documentary film New Year’s Baby, about a young Cambodian-American woman’s quest to know and understand what her parents went through during the dark years of the Khmer Rouge, was shown in the lounge, and all were affected by its poignancy. We will sleep well tonight after another remarkable day, as we prepare for an interesting and emotional day in Phnom Penh tomorrow.
