I’m on Evergreen Island, close to the town of Tan Chau, in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, on day two of a Mekong River cruise, when I meet a chatty farmer who offers me rice wine whiskey, a stool to sit on, and plenty of local insight, as chickens peck at my feet.
Although this is a region prone to flooding (he shows me the patched-up dinghy he’s had since the 1980s that still serves him well), his current life looks idyllic: his fields of taro are blooming with yellow flowers, his cows are fat, and his youngest daughter has just got married (a poster-size wedding photo hangs next to the family altar), but this wasn’t always the case.
Located close to the Cambodian border, the island is where thousands of Vietnamese people were massacred during the Pol Pot regime. The farmer tells me that it was renamed, by local people, “Evergreen Island” in 1979 as a reminder of enduring life. Forty farming families resettled here, who now grow various crops from taro to black beans, long beans to papaya and banana.
The Viking “Magnificent Mekong” river cruise I’m taking allows you to reach places you otherwise cannot go, giving access to communities that are quietly traditional. The seven-day voyage is part of a 15-day itinerary, which is bookended with hotel stays in Ho Chi Minh City, Siem Reap and Hanoi.
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After pulling up anchor at the port of My Tho, the Viking Tonle – named after the Khmer word for “fresh water” – cruises in the direction of Cambodia, and I’m soon spellbound by river life. I lose hours watching the world float by, waving to the captains of cargo boats and dredgers, and the crews of fishing vessels painted with eyes to ward off evil spirits.
Once the sun has gone down, the views change to those of mile upon mile of lights from floating fish farms that cast a glow upon the Mekong’s edges. Sunrise brings the life-affirming dance of barn swallows, which I watch from bed through the floor-to-ceiling window of my stateroom, decorated in neutral tones that allows the view to be the star of the show.
The Tonle (the newest in the Viking fleet, with room for 80 passengers) is specially designed for navigating the Mekong River, with a shallow draft (the vertical distance between the waterline and the lowest point of the boat) that is perfect for low waters. Though we’re often ferried by sampan – smaller flat-bottomed boats that have served the Mekong for centuries.
We hop in one to reach smaller channels around the village of Cai Be, awash with the purple blooms of water hyacinth and lined with houses built on stilts. This is the domain of fruit growers, whose trees hang heavy with jackfruit, rose apple and star fruit. They are a close-knit community, and every home has a family tomb in gardens scented by beds of lemongrass.
In the wet market of Sa Dec, women wearing conical hats sell snails, frogs, eels, vibrant green blankets of morning glory, Malabar spinach (a favourite to add to soups), spring onions, bok choy and mint. Great hornbills, hoping to scoop up spills of fresh fruit, fly low down the waterside main street as I buy a small, sweet pineapple, expertly cut into a spiral to remove the “eyes”, and doused with chili salt. Beyond our Viking group, I’ve not seen one other tourist.
The anchor is dropped for three nights in Cambodia’s lively capital Phnom Penh, just as the sun is setting and the Royal Palace is aglow. Key shore excursions include a visit to the sobering Tuol Sleng Detention Centre Memorial, honouring those killed during Pol Pot’s regime in the 1970s, and the Unesco World Heritage Buddhist Monastery of Oudong (40 kilometres from Phnom Penh).
Sitting on what was Oudong Meanchey, the royal capital for 250 years from 1618 until 1866, the monastery is a wonderfully welcoming place – so much so that if you show up in need, they will feed you and offer accommodation for a night or two. Instead, I enjoy a blessing from a lotus petal-scattering monk, then chat in school girl-French to a white-robed laywoman, who tells me that she is staying for two weeks to practice her faith, and insists that I join her for a glass of fresh green coconut juice.
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Back in the city, in the food section of Central Market, crispy fried tarantulas are among the bounty of unusual, protein-packed snack foods including crickets and grubs. After visiting the Royal Palace, National Museum, and taking a moonlit tour by tuk-tuk, the Tonle’s captain sets a course for our final port, Cambodia’s third largest city, Kampong Cham.
Bordered by tobacco, peanut and taro fields, it has a laidback, unhurried air, and again I relish the chance to skip ashore to somewhere less tourist-heavy. The twin mountains of Phnom Pros and Phnom Srey are home to many Buddhist temples and gardens that bloom with the striking reddish-pink flowers of cannonball trees, and where limelight-stealing, long-tailed macaques climb upon the praying hands of a Buddha statue to pose magnificently.
Across the city’s bamboo bridge (once the world’s longest and still considered the most traditional) I toddle. It leads to Koh Pean Island, where hammocks are set up on the beach, and stalls sell Angkor beer. It’s the city’s number one spot for relaxation, particularly at sunset.
Greetings of susadei (hello) come thick and fast, followed by questions regarding my age and salary (considered, by the friendly Cambodians, as nothing more than polite chit-chat).
Our last shore excursion, before travelling by bus to Siem Reap, is to a collection of small silk-weaving cooperatives that have bandied together amid the mulberry trees. A rainbow of coloured silks hangs from the rafters of wooden-beamed workshops, while below looms are pedalled as they have been for centuries.
What is palpable is the strong sense of kinship between the artisans who work within this contented community, practicing skills passed down through generations. “Very nice,” says one, wrapping a scarf of cobalt blue around my shoulders. As sales pitches go it’s gentle, but of course I bring it home.
Kate’s trip was hosted by Viking.
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How to do it
The Magnificent Mekong cruise with Viking starts from £6,795 per person, including full board, transfers and flights.
Facilities on-board the Viking Tonle include a small plunge pool, a gym, sun loungers, spa with two treatment rooms, indoor air-conditioned restaurant, and a Sky Bar that is open for breakfast and lunch. Enhancement lectures (ranging from “Life on the Mekong River” to “Modern Cambodian history”) run throughout the week, as do cultural performances by local groups.
