This morning we got up at 6am – yawn – showered and made it downstairs just in time to grab breakfast before we headed off on the days tour.

I’d been kept awake the majority of the night by torrential rain and thunderstorms that had not abated when I boarded the bus. We arrived at the boat dock and wrapped up in our raincoats aiming to stay a little dry for the day’s activities.

That however was not top be. After walking through a market with some very suspect food – (a slab of meat with an eyeball in it anyone?)- we boarded a boat. Once again the only seat left was wet, next to the side where the rain was blowing in and under a drip! It didn’t take long for one side of me to be soaked through my rain jacket and the poncho the boat driver had kindly lent me!

The first sop of the day was the usually bustling floating market of Cai Rang. Usually hordes of people flock to the market trading fruit and vegetables boat to boat. On a very soggy day we arrived to find rows of soaking went brown boats selling goods but very few customers – the rain had driven them away. We sailed around the market for a bit hoping the rain would ease and the market would pick up but to no avail.

We chugged on through the water to a place where we were supposed to watch rice noodle making but rain had stopped production. By now many people on the trip were wet and starting to get angry. The guide organised two boats, one to take the angry people back to the bus and another to take those of us prepared to get wetter onto a village for a walk around.

As we arrived at the village much to everyone’s relief it actually stopped raining for a while allowing us to walk around in comfort and even dry out a bit. As we made our way around we came to a bridge called Monkey Bridge. I’m guessing this was because it was most easily crossed if you had the tree hanging skills of a monkey. It was no wider than two thin tree trunks strung together and precariously placed on top three of four fork shaped tree trunks sticking out the water. It was certainly a challenge to cross and many people opted to use the nearby concrete bridge. On the other side of the bridge was a small street café where we stopped for a drink. Emily and I ordered a tea with milk although we’ve still not quite figured out what we actually got. It was a white coloured thick liquid that tasted of fish! Needless to say we didn’t manage to drink it!

From the villages we were taken by boat to the bus to head towards Chau Doc, the boarder town between Vietnam and Cambodia where we were to spend the night, stopping at a crocodile farm along the way. The crocodile farm would have been much more interesting had there not been torrential rain outside. Only Kat and I ventured outside to get a look at the crocodiles with Kat bailing before she’d even seen the big ones. I walked through ankle deep puddles beside ponds crammed full of small crocodiles before coming to a large enclosure where one large Croc sat basking in the rain!

From there we drove straight to Chau Doc, here we were supposed to walk up a mountain overlooking Cambodia and watch the sunset. Just as we approached the heavens opened again and a unanimous vote said we went straight to the hotel.

Chau Doc was another town with very little in the way of entertainment. All we managed to find was a very small Buddhist temple and an English book shop manned by an elderly Vietnamese man who was desperate to speak English with us. The town was very small and we ended up eating fried noodles in the one restaurant that had an English menu before retiring to be around 7pm!

* Posted by j150vsc on 08/09/2007.