The Mekong Delta a geography lesson

Because I can!

Ok well lets start with the map

We travelled from Ho Chi Minh, although everyone calls it Saigon, to Phnom Penh, the 1st half of the journey was up the delta unill we reached Chau Doc, which is at the head of the delta and also on the boarder between Vietnam & Cambodia.

To give some sense of scale all of the major rivers here are at least twice as wide as the Thames in London. The delta is a massive area, home to about 5 million people most of whom are farmers and fishermen. It is therefore a vivid snapshot that gives some idea of how the Thames must have looked before the industrial revolution. While the people of the Mekong have grabbed any technological help they can, there is much they have not been able to obtain yet, or in significant quantity to make a real difference. We saw people ploughing with oxen and a wooden plough as well as much more up to date technology. It is riddled with canals and waterways that join all the threads of the delta together.

The first major issue for the Mekong, at least for moving around on it is the water hyacinth which get everywhere!
Leading to interesting variations on the outboard motor.

As they need some form of getting the prop quickly and easily out of the water to avoid it blocking.

When we watch old cargo boats travelling the Thames we always see them for all intents and purposes empty while here they are mostly full. The difference is very noticeable.

We are much more used to a river boat looking like this, travelling empty.

Passenger boats also come in many and all different configurations:-

The one man self propelled...

Our more luxury model - note coconut in my wife's hand!

This ferry crossing had 6 ro-ro's working when we crossed it, there were another 4 tied up not working

While this was one of the many small one boat ferry crossings that just took carry on cargo, mopeds and people that you see about every 2km along the wider sections of the river

For some reason most of the small ferries seemed to be run by Christians, well they nearly all had a cross like this one.

Therre was a lot of new religious buildings being built all along the delta, in Cambodia it was the Pagodas like this

While lower down the delta in Vietnam it was the churches that stuck out.

Fishing is still of vital import and is practised in different scales from the very small - one boy - operations like this:-

Fish traps of different sorts utilised

This gives some idea of how the medieval traps along the Thames may have been done. However I bet they didn't have the fish farms that have now proliferated along the Mekong, looking for all intents and purposes like floating sheds!

Underneath these sheds are big, 4 or 5m deep nets in which fish are farmed.

The houses obviously come in many different flavours rural or urban, poor or more affluent, here is a selection:-

There is also significant industry, here's the brick works

And of course all these boats need services - here's a fuel station!

Major construction projects like this bridge will obviously change the lives of the delta people. Hopefully for the better!

But eventually even flood defences and revetments will fail under the ever changing watercourses that make up the really mighty Mekong river.

We have now been in Phnom Penh for a few days and are getting to grips with the new culture that is Cambodia.... More later but not I suspect another geography lesson!