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Thank you, Louis: I look for your photos every day. This all looks fascinating and attractive, except, as you might surmise, the 37C with humidity. "Good Morning, Vietnam!"

Can Tho and the Cai Rang floating market

Can Tho is becoming a large industrial hub. Factories are all along the river banks, which certainly removes some of the charm I was expecting.

Mékong Sceneries

The family Sampams seen in older pictures are completely gone, that lifestyle has disappeared, replaced mostly by heavy industrial traffic barges on the water, with recent looking villages and warehouses along the river. The fish are mostly gone too, I didn’t see any fishermen in the Mekong delta, likely due to pollution and overfishing. Industries are building up around Can Tho canals but there are still some few pretty sights to be seen.

I managed to take a picture of Col. Kurtz

Another Mekong land excursion in a hamlet near Tam Binh. The place is limited in terms of excitement, the tour wants to show us how the locals live, and very much appreciated, this is no tourist trap. I must have imagined I was doing a search and destroy mission with my special forces platoon... inspecting the local farm for VC hideouts. All clear, there is not much to report, one cow, 2 goats and some chickens. The owner seemed to be wondering what the hell we were doing checking inside his backyard barns instead of eating the watermelon he had served on the front yard table. He’ll never know.

The old man with me is Roger, he's from the UK. He's 80 years old and doesn't talk much. He’s also looking for something else than watermelon, he’s not saying and seems to like my approach for the visit. I thought he might collapse anytime from the heat and exhaustion but he soldiered on throughout the mission, a true example for the team.


It’s a rich farm I was told. In retrospective, it was a cool place to visit, giving us a glimpse of life in the Mekong.


Back in Cai Be, Roger was the first to prove his courage. The whole platoon did it.


Coconut farming on a island we visited.

Cai Be small canals boat ride


Publicity picture

Reality, unless you have timed yourself with rainy season and high tide, which is likely to make the experience more visually interesting. The regular canals are dry so they brought us to a local sewer it seems. 2 per boats with a 60 years old Mamasan paddler with face mask and using petrol engine when going upstream, no romance here. The Experience lasted 10 minutes… thank goodness. For me, it was just a stop on the cruise but some guys bought an all day tour from Saigon, 6 hours driving, mostly for this and a lunch in Cai Be. Poor them.

Reality if you book a really cheap ride to save 2 bucks, they load you 4 per boat with male pilot and petrol engine, not even a paddle for the look. These tourists looked so pissed off. But again, it gave us a glimpse of live in the Mekong in dry season.
That was definitely the disappointment of the day, but the only one for the cruise.

I provided advise to the tour organizers to skip it as I did not see anyone happy about such experience. It’s better to visit a local villager.

Do your research.

Going through town of Cai Be, dry season. Compared to Can Tho, it seemed to me that Cai Be did not change much. Churches built by the French are well maintained in all towns and villages I have seen. I saw that a portion of the population is Christian, some boats and houses have little Virgin Mary shrines in them. Everyone is friendly.

Land transfer from Cai Be to Chau Doc on the Cambodian border. Don’t expect a scenic ride. The road is along the Mekong river and it’s about 4 hours of bumpy roads through an overcrowded coast line all the way to the Cambodian border. Coppola is full of shit man…

For about 2 minutes of the 4 hour road trip, a beautiful rice field appeared, but then gone. To see the countryside, a specific tour going into side trails is required. There is nothing to be seen on main roads.
The Victoria hotel in Chau Doc on the river banks, the last refuge for westerners in this crazy border town. Don’t expect to find some lost temple with renegade Col Kurtz and his tribesmen in the Jungle… it’s all fantasy.


Chau Doc… view from my hotel room, the highlight of the city… at the junction of the Hau and Chau Doc rivers

It was a US special forces camp and PBR base during the war, now a buzzlng city of 100k+, polluted and noisy. But the people I met are nice.

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Someone has pinned a marker on Goggle map indicating the location of the special forces camp, true or not, I did not know. As it was close to the hotel, I went to check it out. The area is gated. There is ongoing construction on the site. Whatever was there 60 years ago, it’s all gone now.

Crazy town. There is no way to visit this city on foot without risks. The air is also terribly polluted and the place is dirty. Sidewalks, if any, are filled with sellers, parked mopeds and cars.

Forget about trying to find the fictitious Do Lung bridge… the famous night battle scene on the Cambodian border in Apocalypse Now. It should be right here. It's another world now.

Tomorrow, Cambodia.

Chau Doc to Phnom Penh

Early 5 hour speedboat ride, mainly on the Mekong river.

Commercial version of the swift boat. Departure at 7am.

These floating houses make a lot of sense.



A happy camper

The Vietnamese have a huge and impressive sand mining operation throughout the Mekong river. The Vietnamese economy has an insatiable need for sand to support development, building construction, highways, etc. Now I see where all the sand barges that are coming down to the delta were coming from.

Complicated customs. First stop to exit Vietnam, then another stop for entry Visa creation for Cambodia. Everyone is checked, photographed and finger printed, all 10 fingers.

I am guessing it is to recognize our bodies if we blow up on a land mine while visiting the country.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Whatever you know about Cambodia from 1970s books, pictures or war stories, discard it.

I am blown away. Chinese money has been at work here. I am told that none of these high rise office buildings and condo were there 5 years ago. They are going up all over the country.

It does not take much analysis to determine the strategic position of Cambodia, right in the middle of Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, the South China Sea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia further down, with great access to the sea.

China is investing heavily in the country, to the point of control. The high rises being build all around Phnom Penh and Sihanookville are new and building fast. China is building highways between major cities to facilitate transport. The political situation in Cambodia seems very stable and similar to China, the faces of the 3 leaders are on large boards on the streets every few meters everywhere. People do not talk politics in public, only in private, but they seem to enjoy the developments. Same recipe used in China.


A short stroll through the city easily identifies the Chinese players in development. One thing is sure, China is doing thing very smartly. While Russia keeps the west busy with various conflicts, China is steadily playing its cards in plain sight. It seems to have just getting started. Build with debt Cambodia will never be able to repay, China will own the country.

It takes one day to visit the main sight of Phnom Penh


Khmers rouges prison S21 in a converted school. It’s one of the 196 interrogation and torture prison operated by the khmers rouges from 1975 to 1979.

20,000 teachers, engineers, doctors… educated people and their family were interrogated and tortured here before being killed.

There are 4 main buildings with cells and graphic display of torture methods used here to get fake confessions.
The khmers rouges took pictures of everyone.

These are female Khmers rouges guards. The guards and torturers were amnestied and joined back society as part of a peace deal. Dealing with each of them would have prolonged the civil war. It’s a reminder that any people can be made to do anything if properly brainwashed with hatred, fear and lies.

A small sample of the victims. When one was taken and accused, his whole family was liquidated with him.

It’s an emotional visit for most people. I will avoid the details and gruesome pictures.

The killing fields of Choeung Ek, where the victims from S21 Prison were sent to be killed and buried.
I am also avoiding the gruesome pictures. It’s worth visiting to understand.


An inexpensive tuktuk ride is the best way to visit Phnom Penh
The Wat Phnom pagoda, very nice
The Royal palace

The Market