Good Morning Vietnam!….

Day 5 Avalon Saigon River Cruise…leaving Phnom Penh

#avalonjourney

#avalonwaterways

#checkthisoffourbucketlist

#cambodia

#vietnam

We started off from Phnom Penh this morning at 2am to sail on the Mekong River until we reached the border with Vietnam. Apparently we would have to ‘get in line’ with any other ships which were crossing into Vietnam, so arriving early in the morning was the plan to make sure we were not delayed too long at the border.

Approaching Vietnam the Mekong River was certainly a lot busier with dredging operations and more commercial ships than we had seen in Cambodia.

We watched the Vietnam authorities come alongside our ship and one of our crew leave with all of our passports and Vietnam multiple entry visas in a large plastic bag. Its a bit disconcerting to see your passport leaving on a ship that we were not on! Hopefully the operation to process all of our Canadian and US passports and visas were in order!

As it turned out, one of our passengers from Canada had used the ‘ivisa’ service suggested by Avalon and they had screwed up her Vietnam visa. It is a wonder she was able to enter Vietnam when she landed in Hanoi from Canada! Apparently ivisa had thought the first letter of her passport which is a capital ‘O’ was a ZERO instead of a capital O. The Vietnamese authorities at the river border crossing from Cambodia into Vietnam caught it and before we could leave the border, this passenger had to have her picture taken, pay $170USD in cash and have an immediate online visa processed same day. She was also able to get a refund from ivisa, but I think the cost of having a same day visa issued was probably more than what she had paid to ivisa for their service. When we knew we were coming to Vietnam and Cambodia I went on the official websites of both countries and did our visas online myself. The cost of having IViSA do the visas was going to be over $500USD for both countries and I was able to do our visas for less than $150USD. If you can pay attention to detail and fill out a form, and upload a photo, then you can do the e-visas yourself!

While we were enjoying scenic cruising in Vietnam before our afternoon shore excursion, Ha, our Tour Director did a lecture and slide show on the differences between Cambodia and Vietnam. It would have been nice to have the Cambodian perspective the first day we arrived on the Avalon Saigon, but regardless, it was interesting. Richard thought it was a waste of time, but each to their own!

After lunch we docked at Chau Doc, Vietnam where the official tour was to walk to the Chau Doc market which included a fish, meat and produce market. Since we had already visited the Central Market the day before in Phnom Penh, and this small town looked a little ‘sketchy’, we decided instead of visiting the market to walk to an ATM machine to get some Vietnamese Dong, the local currency, and visit a grocery store!

Co.op mart grocery store and shopping mall There was a children’s play area upstairs so parents could drop their kids off and go shopping without the kids.

You could buy diamond jewellery on the way into the grocery store. Engagement rings too!

Signage in English.

The grocery store was called Co-op Mart and we brought Susie and Joan with us to shop and enjoy an hour of exploring a Vietnamese grocery store while the rest of the group went to the market.

Kimchi flavoured potato chips 20,400 dong equals $0.78USD

Jelly shots

single burner cookers

Looking for Vietnamese dark chocolate Wearing my Boho skirt from the Central Market of Phnom Penh which I purchased for $7USD

Richard wearing his custom made shirt from Hanoi. Can you see the airplanes?

At the Co-op Mart of course the prices were in Dong and only Richard connected to the store’s wifi, so every time we wanted to buy something we would say to Richard “What is 65,000 Dong in Canadian dollars?”He said if we asked him once more he was going to surcharge us for converting the prices for us! Anyway, we had fun walking around the grocery store which turned out to be more like an old Zellers or Target with lots of home goods, appliances as well as toiletries and grocery items.

Richard, Joan (from Barrie, Ontario, Canada) and Susie from Houston, Texas.

Boarding my first Sampan. The life jackets were super hot in the 40C and 90% humidity weather!

We just made it back to the ship in time to meet the rest of the group that had gone on the market tour, as they were boarding a Sampan to take a tour around the waters of the Chau Doc, Vietnam.

Our local Vietnamese guide narrated as we motored along a canal looking into the very rustic, tin, stilt homes which looked like they had been put together with anything that could be salvaged from a dumpster.

We could see entire families sitting on the ground looking out and waving at us as we went by in our Sampan. It certainly was an eye opening experience to see the living conditions of the people of Chau Doc. Everyone seemed really happy though!

Open air living

Surrounded by water! Upscale even!

The boats have eyes painted on them so they can see where they are going!

Laundry day on the river. Air conditioning though in most homes!

After about 30 minutes of sailing the Sampan turned around and we headed at a faster pace across the water to a local fish farm.

The fish farm we visited raised Basa and White Tilapia. The fish farmer had spent $40,000USD to put together his fish farm and every 6 months or so he purchased small fish from the hatchery to raise on his fish farm.

We had the chance to feed the fish and the fish started jumping out of the fish farm and stirred the waters up to a frenzy to get the fish food. The Mekong is one of the most diverse and productive rivers in the world with at least 40 million people eating fish from the Mekong each year. When we saw the colour of the water (which is brown from silt) and how the fish were raised we decided we would continue to only eat wild caught fish in the future.

Edible water hyacinths in the water of the Mekong.

Our Sampan sailed across the water to our waiting ship the Avalon Saigon in Chau Doc, and as soon as all of the passengers were off the Sampan and back onboard, we set off for an overnight cruise to our next stop.

Having only 30 passengers on a ship sure makes tendering an easy proposition. There is no lining up to get onto the tender or in our case Sampan, and once everyone has handed back in their ship’s room key card, the crew know that we are all back on board and a signal is giving to the Captain to start the motor and get going.

The onboarding experience after we have been out on an excursion is quite unique on Avalon. The crew line up in stations to receive us and the first person we are greeted by is the crew member with the bottle of hand sanitizer. Next we take off our shoes and the shoes are clipped with clothes pegs with our room numbers on them. Some of the places we are walking have very dirty roads, gravel or mud so to keep the ship’s hardwood floors clean, the crew clean our shoes each time we disembark and re-embark on the ship. We walk barefoot to our cabins after we have been served a nice cold eucalyptus towel to wash off with, a refreshing drink of juice or grape soda and a tray of fresh cut up fruit such as watermelon, grapes, jackfruit, dragonfruit, cantaloupe or pineapple. After a few hours our shoes are returned in trays outside our cabin door and we open the door to check to see if our shoes have been returned. It is a good thing both of us brought more than one pair of shoes for this trip as we cannot go to a meal with bare feet !

The uniqueness of having a small ship and a 1:1 crew ratio has been a wonderful experience. We feel like we are more ‘nimble’ and able to drop anchor and meet up with a Sampan or navigate into a very small village with barely a path to disem

Vietnam so far was pretty interesting and our first excursion in Vietnam certainly gave us a good perspective on how people live, shop and work along the Mekong River. We are looking forward to more adventures as we continue on our journey on the Avalon Saigon, in Vietnam.