Paul sat at the back of the boat to take photos along the Mekong rivers. We arrived at Chau Doc and decided to walk to our hotel near the covered market. I had done a reccy on its location the night before. Our backpacks have been great, even though I am now a couple of inches shorter than when I started. Chau Doc has a great feel to it - it is not primarily a tourist town, so you get a sense of authenticity. There are a few posh hotels on the waterfront and a few budget hotels scattered around. Another great find for us with our guesthouse - Trung Nguyen (no idea how to pronounce that). Air Con, balcony and outside seating, wi-fi, hot powerful shower ($13.28 per night). Only downside was a walk up three flights of stairs to our room. We decided to treat ourselves on our first night to a lovely meal at Bassac Restaurant at the $100 a night French colonial style Victoria Hotel on the waterfront. Paul ordered sweet and sour beef and on my first night in Vietnam I went for the national dish Pho Bo (Fo Bo), which is beef noodle soup to which the waitress said "'Just' Pho Bo?" in a very patronising way. We were served with little appetisers and a bread basket with tapenade. Paul's sweet and sour was amazing with large chunks of beef fillet cooked medium rare and my Pho Bo was enormous. The staff gave us mosquito spray and a mosquito coil when they saw us swatting away, very thoughtful. We also had a dessert, I had fried ice cream in Toblerone sauce and Paul had banana fritters and ice cream. See photos. Ah ... the life of the budget traveller. Chau Doc is a bustling market town with a beautiful landscaped promenade. It has a covered market which sells fruit, veg, fish, sweets and clothes. The people are really friendly and the people watching is amazing. Just sitting at local coffee shop watching the world go by is very entertaining. Paul was saying how no matter what crazy things you see you just start to accept them as completely normal - "Oh look there's a grandma on a scooter with 15 live chickens hanging upside down on a rack on the back." "Oh look, there's a bowl of enormous live frogs on sale". "Oh look, there's a guy driving a scooter, holding a tray of food and drinks with one hand without spilling anything!", "There's a guy holding a baby in one hand while driving a scooter, let's hope the mobile phone in his other hand doesn't go off!"
Whilst the other tourists donned life jackets on their tourist motor boat tour to the Cham village, we opted for the less safe rickety-row-boat tour. As we passed the floating restaurant, we were stopped by a fast talking, tiny Vietnamese lady boat owner; she wanted 100,000 VND (£2.89) for an hour long tour of the floating residences nearby. We said we would think about it and would be back in an hour. We came back later and Paul re-confirmed the deal. We had just precariously settled and sat down at either end of the boat when our little oarswoman said the price was 150,000 VND. A little jokey exchange took place in which she said she had 2 babies to feed and Paul said he had 6 babies and the price settled back to 100,000 VND. We had a fantastic little tour of the floating villages and our driver cheerily, chatted along the way to all her friends, clearly showing off the fact that she had made a good deal with her passengers. We loved it so much that we were back early morning, the next day for a trip to the Cham village. Motorised boats passed us, their life-jacketed occupants jealously in awe of our more authentic experience - maybe?? The Cham village is a Moslim town on the
opposite bank to Chau Doc. We docked at a narrow wooden stilted footbridge which took us to a settlement of wooden stilted houses. The Cham settlements date back to 7th century Champa Kingdom which occupied southern and central Vietnam, they converted to Islam in the 15th
century. The Cham people have faced attempted genocide by both the Vietnamese and the Khmer Rouge in their history. Our Vietnamese guide was clearly really friendly with the families in this area. We were shown some weaving in the front of someone's house before heading off to see the Mosque. It was then back on the boat to head back to Chau Doc. 170,000 VND for an hour and a half - well Paul does have 6 babies to feed! The same day we walked 6kms out of town to Sam mountain - Vietnamese Buddhists do a pilgrimage to the shrines up the side of this hill. It is only around 250m high, but it is the highest thing around; this area being very flat. We followed a path behind the roadside temple up steps through the hillside settlements to the top. We passed shrines, homes and many shelters lined with hammocks along the way. We loved our time in Chau Doc, see the photos, but it was time to move on to our next stop. We passed on the $25 per person tourist boat trip to Can Tho in favour of a £3.19 per person door to door bus ride along the riverbank road to Can Tho - the largest city in the Mekong Delta.