Vietnam and Cambodia: A meander up the mazy Mekong

MAIL Online

By Diana Preston

The brilliant green wetlands of the Mekong Delta seemed like another world after the hectic streets of Ho Chi Minh City - or Saigon, as the locals still call it - two hours' drive northwards.

Our first sight of the vessel that was to transport us on a week-long exploration upstream into Cambodia also evoked another, more tranquil world. With its rattan chairs, potted palms and brass fittings, the RV Tonle Pandaw, a teak riverboat, was straight out of a Somerset Maugham novel, and intentionally so. The Tonle Pandaw and her sister ships are recently built replicas of colonial steamers that were constructed in Scotland a century ago.

In Maugham's day, tigers roamed the Delta but today the banks and islands have been cleared for the orchards and rice paddies that make it Vietnam's food basket. Lounging on the observation deck as the engines throbbed into life, we watched egrets perch on clumps of drifting purple water hyacinth, and fishermen cast nets from boats with prows painted with staring black and white eyes - a tradition dating from when people believed they would frighten off the monsters lurking beneath the surface of the rich peaty brown waters.

By the time it reaches the Delta, the Mekong has flowed 2,700 miles down from the Tibetan Plateau through China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia and is clogged with silt. Private entrepreneurs are allowed to dredge and sell the sand to Ho Chi Minh City's booming construction industry.

Far out east: Diana Preston meets Cambodian temple dancers

As the sun sank that first evening, a sage-grey mist gathered over the water rendering the figures of people bathing or fishing in the shallows as insubstantial as ghosts. Soon the only light was from cooking fires and hundreds of wicks flickering in tiny lamps tethered on the water to mark fishing pots.

Early next morning we took to small boats ourselves, exploring villages built on stilts over the water and discovering floating markets where water taxis dodged sampans so loaded with plants and flowers that they looked like floating allotments. All around us, trees bowed beneath the weight of mangos, jackfruit, dragon fruit, soft, creamy milk fruit and juicy purple mangosteens.

In the heart of the villages there was quiet but constant industry. An old woman steamed sheets of rice paper used to wrap spring rolls, flipping the glutinous, wafer-thin circles with a bamboo wand. Men stirred rice into a giant wok filled with hot black sand. When the rice began to hiss and pop, they sieved the burning mixture to retrieve the pale gold grain, mixed it with sugar, ginger and coconut and patted it into cakes - which make an ideal accompaniment to the golden Mekong whisky distilled from sticky rice.

Back on the Tonle Pandaw we grew accustomed to the gentle swish of the water against her broad hull. Occasionally the conical tops of gently smoking brick kilns pierced the vegetation along the river banks like the towers of longlost cities. By the third day, we were nearing Cambodia and fish farms were everywhere. At one, we watched 120,000 catfish being fed in a tumult of churning water. Later in the markets of Chau Doc we saw the produce of the fish farms - pyramids of golden dried fillets studded with cloves of garlic and red chillies.

Incredible: Angkor Wat is Cambodia's main tourist attraction

Once over the border and into Cambodia we sailed past tranquil farmlands as the gilded spires of temples rose above groves of palm trees and a warm breeze ruffled the water. People waved from fields and fishing boats. Children ran along the bank to show off their skill at flying the long-tailed kites they'd made from plastic bags and sticks.

Early next morning, Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, was silhouetted against a pale peach sky. Barely 30 years ago, the Khmer Rouge expelled the city's entire population into the countryside where many perished in the Killing Fields. Today, two million of Cambodia's 14million population live here and it's thriving. Roads have been mended, hotels built and smart restaurants line a buzzing waterfront.

The 142-year-old royal palace complex has been restored and gleams amid immaculately kept gardens. The Throne Hall with its gilded lamps, golden throne and dark red shutters is magnificent once more. In the Silver Pagoda, diamonds sparkle on a solid gold Buddha while behind it another Buddha, carved from luminous green Sri Lankan jade, sits beneath a red silk canopy sewn with tiny, trembling bells. All too soon our visit was over, and next morning we left Phnom Penh behind.

One of the advantages of a shallowdraft riverboat such as the Tonle Pandaw, which needs a depth of only about 4ft, is that it can get you ashore almost anywhere. With the vessel nestling against the riverbank, the crewmen simply jump ashore with hoes, hack steps out of the crumbly, coffee-coloured earth and position a gangplank. This made it possible to visit remote Chong Koh, a village famous for its weaving, and watch silk-weavers at work on their looms. At another village, families showed us how they boiled vats of palm juice to make palm sugar with the taste and consistency of fudge.

The pagoda complex of Wat Hanchey, 80 miles beyond Phnom Penh, was our final destination along the Mekong. Shaded by giant bamboos, we climbed 300 steps to a 7th Century shrine to the Hindu god Shiva and sat on a terrace overlooking a pool almost choked with pink lotuses. Beyond lay a patchwork of bright green rice fields bisected by the bronze ribbon of the Mekong, snaking north. But, for us, it was time to turn back because our final destination, Siem Reap - site of the ancient Khmer capital of Angkor and its world-famous temples - lay up another river, the Tonle Sap.

Retracing our route to Phnom Penh, we swung from the Mekong into the equally brown waters of the Tonle Sap. After a while, the channel narrowed so dramatically we could almost reach out and pluck a flower from the dense, overhanging jungle.

For the final leg of our journey, we exchanged the stately Tonle Pandaw for a faster vessel - the giant speedboat-that powers daily between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. Standing inches above the water on the speedboat's running board felt as exhilarating as water-skiing as we shot past stilted villages and fishing boats that rocked in our wake.

Onwards: The RV Tonle Pandaw, Diana's river transport

Soon the Tonle Sap was broadening out and we entered the seeming infinity of the Tonle Sap Lake - the largest body of fresh water in Asia. For two hours we skimmed its bright surface until, finally, a cluster of low buildings appeared on the horizon - the port of Siem Reap.

We spent the next three days among the temples of a once-mighty empire. From the 9th Century to the 13th, Khmer kings built here on an epic scale - creating moated palaces, great pyramidal temples, ceremonial walkways, statues of Buddha and of Hindu gods, bridges decorated with writhing 'nagas' (multi-headed serpents) and carved friezes hundreds of feet long.

You can only marvel at the breathtaking imagination and ambition that inspired buildings such as the temple monastery of Ta Promh, where Lara Croft, Tomb Raider was filmed, and the world's largest religious monument, Angkor Wat, which is nothing less than a microcosm of the Hindu universe. But wonderful as Angkor was, the intimate journey that had brought us 580 miles into the heart of river life in Vietnam and Cambodia had been as great a pleasure as our final destination.

Travel Facts

Diana Preston travelled with Voyages Jules Verne (www.vjv.co.uk, 0845 166 7035) on their Angkor Wat and The Mekong trip. Prices are from £1,885 and include one night in Ho Chi Minh City, seven nights aboard the RV Tonle Pandaw or sister ship, three nights in Siem Reap and all flights. For independent travellers, British Airways (www.ba.com, 0844 493 0787) flies to the regional hub Bangkok from £529.30 return and Bangkokair flies to Ho Chi Minh City and Siem Reap. The Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, operators of the Pandaw fleet (www.pandaw.com), also offer river cruises in India and Myanmar.