October 31st
happy Halloween.  today we leave Phnom Phen for Chau Doc in Vietnam.  a short bus drive to dock and wait out our 9:00am charter at the Titanic dock side restaurant.  Our passports are handed to our guide then over to a local for what reason I do not know.  while waiting for the bus we leave the dimly lit bar area of the joint and sit outside on the deck which is lavishly decorated in Cambodian  Titanic period style.  the deck is furnished with white painted wicker furniture, wood beam ceiling and supports in gold patina painted wood grain, hard to describe.  at the back of the deck are large replicas of the faced topped  temples in Angkor City and the gold umbrella looking thingys you see at temples.  I enjoyed my pretty looking, but lukewarm latte which resulted in a second trip to the toilet, this time almost tripping over a coach roach in the door way so as to not step on it, yup it's dead alright, was not there the first time I went. only one other couple and our group  boarded the little charter boat, even I had to bend my head to walk between the seats, for the 4 hour cruise down the Mekong to Vietnam.   We passed the royal palace and the place we saw the fireworks earlier, some trees that sat surrounded by water obviously from the flooding.  Most of the time my head was down catching up on my journal.  did show Sareth how to play mahjong and angry bird which he really enjoyed. so now all caught up, time to sit back and enjoy the scenery.
Our boat pulled along the side the pier at the Cambodian boarder crossing, we carefully crossed the rickety pier that was disparately in need of some major repairs. We walked up to a window handed over our passports and in no time were cleared; back across the rickety pier and on to the boat for a short jaunt to the vietnam boarder crossing.  the TV in the waiting room at the Vietnam crossing had an Asian version of phantom of the opera.
about one hour later we pulled into Chau Doc, a boarder town of about 100,000.  houses line the shorelines for miles while some were surrounded by water and accessible only by boat.  If you can picture Vietnam you can picture it here.  women wear the round pyramid shaped straw hats, some look like they are still in their PJ's; a prime mode of transportation along the river are small shallow wooden boats maneovered by oar.  Larger junket type boats were further from the city, some looked as though they maybe peoples homes.  we also saw two beautiful river boats go by, maybe we are traveling on those later on our trip. Our hotel room is small, so small in fact our bathroom door skims the sink when closing; sitting on the toilet and your knees are almost against the wall, the shower is so close to the toilet multi tasking is possible.  Better than the boat which had constant running water, I am guessing to and from the Mekong, I added to the river on visit to the toilet.  the view from our first floor balcony could be electrifying, numerous power lines run inches away, there will be no chilling out on the balcony here.
not much to do here. We cruised the local market across from the hotel then waited for 4:00 for our scooter trip to Nui Sam mt to watch the sunrise. Megan is experiencing issues with the left and rights, turn right...no this way.. So you mean the other right?  It's all fun, I think she has it now.
we hired "intrepid" approved shooters with driver to take us from the hotel through town, past the flooded rice paddies, fish farms, pink ducks (which distinguishes the from the neighbours) and up the windy rough road to the top of the "mtn" which is more a large hill in Canadian rocky terms. the ride was quite enjoyable, only going 30 to 40 km/hour through the narrow streets dodging chickens, dogs, people, bikes and other scooters; at times breathing in smelly fish or  the aromatic smell of food cooking from the road side vendors and homes.  the traffic seams to defy logic but it works; drivers honk only to let others know they are passing.  Sareth provided instructions to mount and dismount the scooter with out getting burn't on the "chimney" (Sareth coins everything that expels smoke a chimney).