December 4th
After breakfast, it is time to move on. As we have come to expect, a clean, fresh-smelling taxi arrives exactly on time and we are on our way to the Can Tho Bus Station (3 CAD) to pay for our reserved seats on the FUTA bus. Luckily there is normal seating (no contortions required) and we are off to Chau Doc some 3.5 hours away….
Straightforward trip with no incidents, in Chau Doc we are transferred to a minibus, which in turn delivers us to the Murray Guesthouse, home for the next two nights.
Chau Doc in the Mekong Delta is a town of some 160m and an important entry point to Cambodia with a daily speedboat connection on the Mekong to Phnom Penh. Its diverse population is composed of Cambodians, Cham, Chinese and Vietnamese with various religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, and Muslimisim represented and apparently living in peaceful coexistence.
After getting settled in this incredibly clean guesthouse (the floors glisten) which is owned by a New Zealander and his Vietnamese wife (more about the owner later) we head out for a bit of a walkabout. A much quieter town than we have seen to date and with much less construction. Not many Westerners around and we get quite a few looks, waves and hellos as we wander around the waterfront and nearby streets….
….ice “logs” waiting to be converted to cubes, not so sure about the hygiene …
On the spur of the moment we decide to jump on a ferry crossing the Hau Giang River (Bassac River) …we are the only footies and once on the other side we wander around one of the Cham Villages (there are several but we are short on time).
They are the remnants of an ancient civilization and are split between Hindus and Muslims….which we can see here with many women veiled. As well there are some 20 mosques in this region of which we visited one, the Mubarak Mosque…
We then backtracked and made our way back to the guesthouse in time for some refreshments on the rooftop terrace…we came across a beer called Larue .. established in 1909, this beer was named after Victor Larue, founder of the Brasseries et Placieres de L’Indochine Brewery….so felt it was fitting moment to give it a taste ….tasty, rather yummy !!
…and then a nice quiet dinner at the Mekong Restaurant (early as usual)…..
…one of about three restos recommended by the owner, a 15-minute walk back and off to bed …tomorrow is a touring day.