A joint effort to untangle fishing nets in readiness for casting further upstream. Photo / Getty Images
If you want to find Cambodia and Vietnam’s actual hidden gems; places where few other tourists have trampled, it’s still possible with a river cruise, writes Nannette Holliday
A long wooden fishing boat putts past, stirring up the already murky Tonlé Sap River water. Sitting in the middle, a child and woman diligently untangle fishing nets in readiness for casting further upstream. The golden sunrise highlights a row of wooden stilt houses standing guard like soldiers on the steep riverbank opposite. The people of Koh Chen are going about their daily chores, oblivious to my intrusion.
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I’m lying in my cosy bed, peeking out the large window of my air-conditioned en suite cabin aboard RV Toum Tiou II (TT2), a cute 14-cabin teak and steel-hulled river cruiser. TT2 oozes intimate luxury and old-world charm. My every need is met with a restaurant, bar, and sundeck staffed by friendly Cambodians.
TT2 is the second smallest of the five CF Mekong/Croisi Europe ships that have navigated these waterways since 2002. I’m on their nine-day New Discovery Cruise from Siem Reap, Cambodia, to Saigon, Vietnam.
Meandering upstream towards Kampong Chhnang, the river is a hive of activity, but in a peaceful, non-urgent way. Barges ferry cars, bikes, and people from shore to shore, and hubs of fishing boats dot the shorelines. TT2 sounds its horn only occasionally to warn them to protect their nets as we pass.
These Cambodians remain unfazed by our presence. We’re travelling the less tourist route. Even when we disembark at Kampong Chhnang fishing port, there are no hawkers selling their wares.
Each daily off-ship activity is included and diverse, offering additional insights into the cultural traditions of the regions we travel through.
Some guests bike 4km through the lush rice fields at Kampong Chhnang. Others relax in an air-conditioned minivan to Andong Reusey Community Village, where artisans work from their homes with unwavering passion.
We watch in amazement as Sophat, a 10th-generation potter, walks around a solid tree stump, patting the clay with her hands and a paddle, miraculously crafting a perfect pot. She’s never used an electric or foot-peddled pottery wheel.
Like an agile monkey, 72-year-old Mr Ry swings between sugar palm trees collecting juice to make palm wine and palm sugar. His 73-year-old wife stirs the palm juice over a large pot on an outdoor fire, turning it into palm sugar, which they sell for US$1.75 (approx. $3) a kilo.
At Kampong Tralach, I ride on an ox cart tray reserved for transporting goods, plodding past pea-green rice fields to Pothi Rokha Ram Pagoda, the oldest in Kampong Chhnang province. Sitting cross-legged, surrounded by deteriorating 18th-century murals painted by Pal and Chea, I listen to an orange-robed monk explain his life before he blesses me.
While at Vipassana Dhura Buddhist Meditation Centre in Oudong, Cambodia’s former capital, we talk casually with a nun. It’s inspirational and humbling to learn about her life and what meditation means to her as she washes plates in a plastic bowl under her home at the centre.
Tours at Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Minh City cover all the big-ticket palaces, museums, historical sites, entry fees, and some local cafes and restaurants. An English-speaking guide adds local anecdotes to his history repertoire as we comfortably travel by air-conditioned bus amid the city’s hustle and bustle.
Asian cuisine can be equally memorable, especially in various markets. At Oudong, the eye-opening contents include snakeheads, stuffed frogs, and red ants with bananas. Fried crickets and tarantulas dominate Phnom Penh’s huge domed Central Markets, and exotic black eggs, duck embryos, and fried rats lay between traditional Vietnamese foods and tropical fruits at Sa Dec Markets. The intermingled smells of raw meat, seafood, mystery organs, slippery creatures, and ripe fruits are another world.
With all meals included and TT2′s chef preparing bountiful Asian and Western meals from buffet breakfasts to copious three-course lunches, lavish five-course dinners, and even individually chef-cooked offerings, we’re never hungry, and there’s no need to experiment unless these unusual foods are on your wish list.
Gliding across the border into Vietnam at Vinh Xuong, there’s an eerie shift. The peaceful little Cambodian fishing boats are replaced by massive barges piled high with gravel and export goods, sharing our cruising space on the way to Saigon. Life is hectic. Large factories loom menacingly on one side, juxtaposing intermittent rice fields, fruit plantations, and uncaring cattle on the other.
Three hours later, Chau Doc was a breath of fresh air. A kaleidoscopic border town where Khmer, Chinese, Cham, and Kinh (Vietnamese) communities thrive. It’s as colourful as the floating fishing farms dotting the Hau River’s shores, 250km west of Ho Chi Minh City.
We ride the cable car up sacred Sam Mountain, dotted with pagodas, temples, and caves. At the top, vivid patchwork farm countryside and Vinh Te Canal stretch to the border. In town, thick incense fills the air at Mieu Ba Chua Xu Pagoda. We’re shoulder-to-shoulder with locals praying before the sacred Lady Chau statue, placing baskets of fruit, flowers, and whole pig offerings beside it.
An hour from town at Tra Su Cajuput Forest, a two-person rowboat meanders through waterways, floating over carpets of waterlilies and under towering paperbark trees. This vast natural wetland is home to various birds and animals. A long motorboat then zips to the other end of the forest, delivering us to an observation tower. The panoramic, majestic views of the biodiverse ecosystem are serene. In the hazy distance, I spy Sam Mountain.
Further into the Mekong Delta estuaries, the hectic Sa Dec riverside markets overflow with people and produce. A short stroll away, we enjoy traditional tea and glazed ginger at Huynh Thuy Le Ancient House, where French author Marguerite Duras lived and set her breathtaking literary novel, The Lover. It’s a treasure trove of nostalgia, antique furniture, stained-glass windows, and painted cement tiles.
My heart sinks when the community project centre appears to be a typical tourist haunt, with souvenirs blanketing the entrance. But behind the facade, locals diligently produce various-flavoured popping corn and rice cakes, cook, wrap, and package coconut candy, bottle rice wine infused with snakes and scorpions, and craft delicate rice paper sheets for those delicious spring rolls we love.
Nearby at Cai Be, the cooking class didn’t pan out as expected. Mercifully, real chefs had prepared a beautiful feast, which was worked off afterwards by bike riding or kayaking around the tropically fruit-laden islet.
Meaning “Beautiful Reed”, My Tho is the largest city and a major port in the bountiful Mekong Delta. Day trips from Ho Chi Minh City are popular, and many buses roll in at 11am as we return to TT2. Minus these tourists, we’ve enjoyed three hours of profound local connections. Some peacefully biking, others wrapped by slithering snakes or safely gliding in sampans along scenic palm-fringed canals, witnessing fruit harvesting and glazed fruit production.
Over lunch and relaxing drinks, TT2 drifts along Cho Gao Canal, the entrance to Saigon. Close to the shore again, we spy into farmer’s homes, temples, and pagodas. The canal is a water highway servicing more than 2000 commercial ships and barges daily. We’re privileged, as the five CF Mekong River Cruise ships are the only cruise ships to sail this 29km canal connecting Saigon and the Mekong.
Cruising into Vietnam’s lively capital at sunset, we dock at Bach Dang. We have two more nights aboard TT2, complete with city tours, but tonight, five of us have chosen the only optional tour—a Vespa Nightlife Food Tour. The bright two-wheel vintage machines and our drivers are waiting.
Four fabulous hours zigzagging amongst the capital’s crazy city traffic, sipping sky-high cocktails, staring at city lights, devouring Saigon’s best banh mi, and a sidewalk seafood banquet with locals, rounded off with a rich hot chocolate nightcap at Maison Marou Saigon.
On the final morning, while sipping my coffee on the peaceful sundeck, I knew the nine-day New Discovery cruise had shown me another world full of authentic activities, countless unique experiences, people interactions, and hidden gems away from the usual tourist offerings.
All restaurant meals aboard, on-land tours, English-speaking guides and Wi-Fi are included. Alcohol is not included. However, a good selection is available and reasonably priced, or you can take your own aboard, and they happily refrigerate. The cruise operates from Siem Reap to Saigon or in reverse.
For more things to do in Vietnam and Cambodia, see vietnam.travel and tourismcambodia.org
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