Entries about chau doc

Chau Doc, September 3rd 2011

P.S. (Pre-Script): ALL photos by Nokia N86 8M:P

Chau Doc is a city that lies on the border of Vietnam and Cambodia. I joint a 2D1N tour held by The Sinh Tourist starting from Sai Gon, through the Mekong River, overnight in Chau Doc, back on the river, and finally later in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

This is my hotel. No elevator. But, luckily my room was just on the second floor, and the stairs weren't steep. When I wanted to go up, a staff immediately came to me and took my suitcase from my hand. Cảm ơn!

My free breakfast. I ate the omelet with the croissants I had brought from Palace Hotel Sai Gon the day before, and then drank the coffee. That's for sure. The baguette, I put in a zipped plastic bag for emergency purpose.

After breakfast, I took a short morning walk around the vicinity before getting on The Sinh Tourist's van. I should have woken up earlier and take more pictures. Yesterday I was surprised by the flags lining along the street as I entered Long Xuyen. Now I'm surprised by the sight of shops that put up signs written in Chinese characters. As far as I've been concerned, during my all previous 5 trips in this country, signs on shops are always written in Latin alphabet -- of course with the additional worms hanging on top or below :D In addition to that, the architecture of the shops also were more Chinese. You know, that wooden door which can be half opened on top, which is the basic of the Chinese character 門. So were the vertical bars across the wooden windows. Chau Doc, this part of Vietnam, seems to be more Chinese than any other places I've known in Vietnam. Even Lao Cai that actually lies on the border with China, doesn't have a Chinese atmosphere as strong as here.

We got on this van (mini bus) to get to the port. It was just about a 15 minutes ride. Before crossing the border, there are yet still some things to see, and learn about.

Here we are at the port.

In one boat there can only be max 2 passengers. I shared my boat with my tour guide.

Here we go, into the grandeur part of Mekong River.

Trying to take a picture of myself with my cellphone.

Ah... I better ask my tour guide to take my picture. Hmm... not too bad.

The sky was perfect. I couldn't ask for a better weather. For such a weather, a cellphone camera is just sufficient. Everything is done. I just need to press the shutter button. The photos in next album will also come from Nokia. On this day I made the most pictures with a cellphone during the whole trip.

Approaching the fish farm...

Here's how they run the fish farm. The floor can be opened. They are catfishes. Our tour guide threw food into the water and a big splash came out as the fishes jumped up and down to seize their meal. There are 40,000 catfishes inside the pool.

Catfish farming is a big business. For 1 kilo of catfish, a farmer can get 30,000 VND. However, not to mention the risk, the investment itself is pretty big. To build this farm house, you need 40,000 USD. The reason is because in order to make the house adaptable to water, they need to use wood. But, wood is expensive in Vietnam.

And of course the fishes must be well fed. A fish farmer has to spend 1 million VND a day just for fish food.