A shuttle from Ho Chi Minh City’s airport kicks off our Uniworld holiday. Introducing himself as AK, our guide discusses this dynamic city’s traffic congestion and motorbike culture. Tours reveal old Saigon’s colonial beauty and Vietnam’s final push for independence.
Mekong Navigator awaits us at My Tho. Aboard this classy French colonial-style riverboat, we savour buffet breakfasts, lunches and sumptuous wine-toasting dinners. Evening entertainment concludes with top-deck nightcaps. Comfortable sampans facilitate morning and afternoon excursions.
Monday: Off Cai Be, a floating market of boats fly flags advertising merchandise. On an offshore island, blue-jacketed women row us in smaller sampans along a French-built canal. On the opposite shore, gathered in an open-air shelter, we watch women braid water hyacinths into lovely baskets. In another, an 83-year old weaves roofing pallets from palm fronds.
Greeting uniformed students and smiling moms on bicycles, we survey surrounding pastel homes. Stilted to survive flooding by October-November monsoons, they now shelter boats, hammocks… and snoozing cows. Giant jackfruit and black pepper pods flourish on the shoreline.
Afternoon investigations involve Vinh Long’s sweets enterprise. Under a high, corrugated roof, workers boil cane sugar into caramel candy. Nearby, ladies add shredded coconut and cane sweetener to rice popped in an enormous wok. Poured into rimmed sheets, they cut the cooled confection into bars. Tasting samples with green tea, we buy several goodies. Outside, boa constrictors in terrariums discourage hungry rats.
Tuesday: Past barges heaped with rice and some with sand, we debark at Sa Dec. Our destination is House of Romance, the setting of a steamy novel and movie, The Lover. The 19th century salon exudes the wealth of the owner, a Chinese rice merchant. Photos document his son’s passionate affair with a French schoolgirl. But, like Romeo and Juliet, lasting love proved impossible. Other photos show his “approved” Chinese wife and children… and lover’s family in France.
Two temples reveal Vietnamese adaptations. Outside one, a good-hearted local spirit joins familiar Chinese Lion Dancers. Inside, porcelain idols venerate local ancestors. The other rises flamboyantly across the river. “Saints” like Sun Yat-sen, China’s first president, and French novelist Victor Hugo decorate the foyer. “Conceived near Hanoi in 1926, Cao Dài professes a universal outlook,” AK explains. “Above the inner shrine, you’ll find divine prophets representing eight world religions.”
Returning via an endless street market, we see every imaginable edible including exotic produce, live fish, eels, chickens, snakes… and rice-fed rats.
On Gieng Island, fourth-generation craftsmen build fishing boats with water compartments to keep live fish. One fellow describes wood bending and caulking techniques.
Next, motorbike-powered tuk-tuks zip us along tropical greenery to the Mekong Delta’s largest Catholic Church. Under cool shadows, a Friar describes his mission to help lepers. While viewing ornate tombstones, thunderous drums, cymbals and dirges emanate from the church. A grieving family dressed in white leads a solemn funeral procession into the cemetery.
Wednesday: Vinh Long’s shoreline boasts tilapia, catfish and basa farms. Bags of manioc fish food border large net enclosures. “A returning Mississippi veteran inspired this profitable enterprise,” AK says. “Unlike ocean pens, Mekong currents wash away debris.”
Long Khanh Island’s pathways lead past houses, open-to-view ceramic-tiled interiors, polished wood furnishings and flat screen TVs. At another comfortable home, a Viet Cong veteran describes his hardships as a medic during the Vietnam War – and appreciation for American opposition. A plastic Statue of Liberty aptly shares a shelf with Ho Chi Minh’s photo. Continuing into another community, skeins of washed and beautifully dyed cotton dry on fences. At one house, weavers operating motorized looms produce fine textiles for scarves, shawls and hats.
Thursday: Moored at Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, new guide, Tri, shepherds us to waiting tuk-tuks. Bordering wide boulevards, manicured parks display statues of prominent Cambodians and wildlife. Stops include the King’s opulent palace grounds, Silver Pagoda and National Museum, exhibiting wondrous artifacts from Angkor Wat.
Friday: A motorcoach takes us to sobering memorial sites. Encompassing mass graves, Killing Fields Park recalls Khmer Rouge’s victims. A modern Buddhist stupa honours these Cambodians. A 1970s school-turned-prison further recounts this regime’s torture and slaughter of millions.
Saturday: In Angkor Ban village, the Chinese zodiac’s colourful animals line our pathway toward a resplendent Buddhist Monastery. Walking in the adjacent neighbourhood, we meet a woman grinding sugar cane and ice into slushies. She invites us to look inside her spacious, reed-matted home. Onward along the path, two couples shuck corn for their Brahman cattle. And an English teacher welcomes us into his classroom to converse with eager students.
After lunch, our ship heads to Wat Hanchey. Inside its hilltop temple, we sit on a marble floor surrounded by glorious frescos. Saffron-robed monks chant blessings while sprinkling us with water.
Sunday: Disembarking at Kampong Cham, we travel 260 km through Cambodian countryside to Siem Reap, gateway to World Heritage Ankor Wat.
Afternoon tuk-tuks transport us to an historic city park. Women at a corner market sell lotus blossoms and tiny birds. Hundreds of bats hang from huge trees. Putt-putting onward to a vocational school, we witness students developing their artistry: sculpting sandstone, carving wood, painting, casting bronze and weaving silk.
Monday: Rising above moated walls, Angkor Wat’s iconic spires form five mythical mountains. In the 12th century temple grounds, we pass archival structures and a large pond filled with pink blossoming lotus.
At the outer gallery, long bas-relief walls portray fabled Hindu gods and demons battling over Amrita, elixir of life. In the majestic upper courtyard, 1,500 dancers are immortalized in stone. Remarkably, these celestial apsara display distinctive coiffures, headdresses and jewellery.
Tonight, we attend a drama. An overhead screen subtitles the Cambodian dialogue. Set in a bar, actors perform thrilling acrobatic feats, innovative rock music and resolve modern social dilemmas.
Tuesday: Before dawn, flashlights help us ascend the walkway to Phnom Bakheng, a 10th century hilltop temple. These ruins offer bedazzling sunrise views over Angkor Wat. Following picnic basket breakfasts, gondoliers punt us around an early moat in classic swan boats.
Our mini-bus whisks us to a bridge spanning the moat. We cross between sculpted monsters and angels lining its railings. On through a Buddha-faced tower, we re-board the bus. “Welcome to Angkor Thom! Two 13th-century kings, a Buddhist and his Hindu cousin, constructed this ancient Khmer capital,” Tri smiles, pointing. “And that ornate platform is the Terrace of the Elephants, built to review troops.”
Our tour continues in Bayon, Angkor Thom’s most beloved temple. Inside, its outer gallery’s bas-reliefs gloriously depict a legendary Khmer naval battle. Beneath, panels of domestic scenes illustrate hunting, fishing, tending children, marketplace bartering and more. Above two libraries’ deep courtyard cisterns, another gallery displays a Hindu epic. Vishnu is pictured as an archer atop a chariot; nearby appears his foe, an eight-armed monster. A high terrace overlooks Buddha-faced spires, sporting gigantic smiles. Shipmates pose beside the jolliest, clicking selfies.
Explorations end at Ta Prohm, the jungle temple seen in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Massive strangler fig trees have reclaimed this manmade wonder. Left largely unrestored, tendrils drill into stonework, cover walls and embrace doorways. Tri photographs us framed by thick, gnarly roots.
Buddha smiled warmly on our travels. Engaging experiences help us better appreciate Vietnamese and Cambodian history, industry and culture.
IF YOU GO:
Visit www.uniworld.com and check out: The Wonders of Vietnam, Cambodia and the Mekong Cruise
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