Mekong River | New Bohemians

Living on the Mekong in Cambodia: Where do you live?

The family on this, approximately 25 long by four feet wide boat, are fishing the Mekong river in Cambodia. They fish from early morning to dark daily. They will find a, hopefully safe, place to tie up for the night. The boat is their home, their only home. The eat, sleep, cook, make love, give birth and die there. The only time they touch land is to sell their fish. In some places buyers come to the river. There are many such boats on the Mekong, in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Sometimes a government tries to take them from the river, but they return.

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Morning in Kompong Cham

Mekong

Nice Frogs For Sale; Want Some Frogs?

Helper

Silver Dollars

Selection

Modern Cambodian Market Woman

Sunrise over the Mekong and a morning spent in one of our favorite Asian markets; wonderful coffee and spring rolls at a market stand started our day off right.

We leave the Mekong for good soon, and we will miss it. The river is the lifeblood of SE Asia, and the people use it fully.

We were not far from the river’s source in the Tibetan lands of the Himalaya and enjoyed it in Laos and the delta in Vietnam. It is truly one of the world’s great rivers and we are privileged to have seen so much of it, and it’s people.

The Mekong: Life Along a Slow River

The Mighty Mekong braids its way across Cambodia and Vietnam and supports a huge population. There are many islands with no bridges or ferry services. At the Cambodia border we took a slow boat up the river for a good look at river life from water level, and then a 108k ride the next day beside or near the river in Cambodia. Here are some photos of those two great days:

Panorama of Cambodian Life (click for full size, its big)

Man throwing a net on a backwater of the Mekong in Cambodia

Sunset over Phu Chau

Workers

Patient horse in Cambodia. They reminded me of Turkish horses in their size, ability to haul large loads at a beautiful trot.

Cambodian bus; the ultimate in appropriate technology.

Washing His Tractor

Protecting Her Face From the Sun

Learning the Trade

Not Much Freeboard

Language Lesson

Home and Business on the Mekong

On the Mekong life is Smiles

Slow Boat to Cambodia

[httpv://youtu.be/Qk9mA51jhE8]

After taking the wrong ferry to the border, we finally found our way to a the most laid back border crossing yet. However after we started riding to the Cambodian border station, we discovered the nice small paved road turned to a dirt path, and would be like that for up to 40K, and we didn’t have much water.

After another easy time with our visas into Cambodia, we discovered a small wood boat at the dock and found we could take it four hours to a town with accommodation for $10: both of us, Zippy and Lucky; such a deal.

Lots of photos from our first two days in Cambodia next post.

Vientiane

Lotus Blossoms

A couple more mere blips of hills, and we are now in the valley of the Mekong, for the next week, before turning toward Vietnam. We arrived in the Capitol, Vientiane yesterday and applied for our Vietnamese visa. Claire got a bit of the last day of the Full Moon festival on video, and we will enjoy this small city for a day, possibly two. She’s over his gastro-intestinal episode, and ready to pedal. She finally found her French Toast! Unfortunately the only syrup they had on offer, was honey. Maple syrup comes from Quebec, for the French, and there are few French to be seen in the former colony, though we do see some of the language, Lao and English appear to be dominant. I can imagine that upsets the French.

Wahoo!

We saw a single cyclist on the way into the city, met a couple just beginning their tour last night, and another this morning, heading south ahead of us. All are European and speak English. It was enjoyable to converse about our shared passion, places we have been, and share information about the road ahead. The single male, has cycle toured 100,000 kilometers.

Cemetery in Laos

Steve Wilson just passed 100,000 miles bicycling; congratulations Steve! So there is your new goal Steve. He was probably about your age, but started many years ago. But, it’s only 62,000 miles.

I don’t believe I have the desire for another 40,000 kilometers. Claire said we could do two more loops of Australia. We’ve been talking a lot about Australia on this trip. I think it may be our favorite, though North America still has some unexplored, by us, wonderful places.

We’ll post pictures of the last few days below. We have scheduled some short videos, one from back in China over the next few days. John Hoyle pointed out that I can schedule posts ahead, so you hear from us, even while we are out there pedaling the Internet-less countryside.