Pilgrimage: a long journey or search, especially one of
exalted purpose or moral significance. So perhaps the title is a bit ambitious....
The
Mekong has long held us in its thrall. I
think the first time I was aware of the river’s name it was in the movie “Apocalypse
Now”. Thankfully we have never met any
incarnation of the character of Kurtz or any of his friends – that we know of.
The
Mekong rises in Tibet, and wanders its way through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand,
Cambodia, & Vietnam to the ocean. It
is the source of life and love and vitality for millions of people. It feeds, transports, waters, hydrates
them. It is the constant in their lives
as it rises and falls, fills with monsoonal rains and meltwaters, drains into
the rice fields, moves crops from farms to markets, is one of the hardest
working rivers you’ll see.
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| Commerce at the floating markets in Can Tho, Vietnam |
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| Fishing nets |
A
couple of years ago Dermot & I went to the Mekong Delta, looking at, and
being in, the expanse, and the wonder, and the abundance that is the
delta. Fabulous. There was hardly a square inch that wasn’t growing
food. Zucchini and cucumber, bananas and
jackfruit, rice paddies being rotated through with fish and ducks, chickens
absolutely everywhere…. It made the
heart of a horticulturalist’s child sing.
Ever since, we’ve watched with interest and expectation the cooking and
the travel programs – marvelling at the colour and the life and the culture.
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| Dragon Fruit |
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| Juvenile Bananas |
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| Flooded Ricefields |
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| Fishing & raising ducks on the Mekong Delta |
On
the way to Ban Lung from Tbeang Meanchy our excitement at seeing the river
again built as we got closer. We drew up
to it in the van at Steung Treng, where several of the Mekong’s tributaries
come together, to cross on the ferry.
The new bridge is apparently 6 months away. As we waited for the ferry to come back
across the river, we watched the cattle wading in the shallows, allowed
ourselves to be teased by the kids who were ducking and weaving behind each
other, trying to avoid, but wanting to be photographed, and watched while
embarrassed haulage operators hand-emptied their truck of bricks which had
obviously outsmarted its brakes and had become far-too-acquainted with the
lapping shore of the river.
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| Relocating bricks |
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| Who was teasing whom?! |
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| Cattle Onshore |
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| Everyone was helping to move those bricks |
Mr
Sin drove the van onto the ferry, and Rory, Paula, and Votha quickly made
themselves comfortable on the top deck with the views and their beer. The ladder to get up there was just too hairy
for me… and it didn’t matter, we were on the Mekong again! It’s hardly the upper reaches of the river,
but here it was 2½ Km wide and clearly showed its might. Soon, the bridge will be ready so that
traffic will drive across, but I quite enjoyed the people and cattle-watching,
and the timelessness of waiting for the ferry to return. And being on the river. We were off to Wild East to look for mines
and gems and volcanic lakes, and where Rory & I would take a bushwalk. We left the river behind for now.
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| Rory moving upstairs |
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| The new bridge |
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| Living in luxury |
Just
a few days later, though, we came to the river again. There were tantalising glimpses as we passed
through villages with their stilted housing, and a promising (but not large)
amount of horticulture – watered by the river.
A bumpy, rough road where we mostly avoided potholes, and sometimes even
on the correct side of the road. A world
of commerce, life, travelling, exchange, and herding passed us on the way.
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| An unfortunate blink, but I'm on the river! |
Not
far out of Kratie we stopped to see if we could spot, and possibly even
photographically capture, one of the few pods of remaining freshwater
dolphins. For me, it’s always that
please-let-me-do-this-confidently plunge as I move between shore and longboat
that carries the anxiety. That, and the
bit where the others do the same, bringing one edge of the vessel perilously
close to the surface of the water. And
then. We’re back on the river. Travelling to the spot, it hardly mattered whether
we saw the dolphins or not. It was such
a gorgeous place. And we were so close
to the water. If ever there was a place
to breathe, and breathe deeply, this was it. Wonderful.
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| Islands in the river |
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| Fishing |
Disembarking
on one of the river’s islands where people were clearly living and fishing, we
stood onshore (mostly) and watched. And
looked. And waited. A delightful spot to be doing it, too. And then they appeared. Surfacing and curving. Shimmering and shining. And bloody awful to photograph. But I tried.
Which was important. But what a
wonderful location! Again, it hardly
mattered if any of the forty or fifty motor-wind shots came out well – we were
here!
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| The best shot I took (it's a dolphin, by the way) |
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| Living in and on the river |
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| Island living |
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| Our boat on the beach |
Feet
and hands in the water, here it looked quite clear and clean. In the delta, it would be wise to keep a
cautious distance from the surface of the water that carries any amount of
agricultural, household, and human waste to the ocean. Sadly.
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| Cooling in the river |
And
in the morning – it was still there!
Breathing. Again. A Mekong Morning. Nice.
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| Mekong Morning - I |
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| Mekong Morning - II |
On
our way into Phnom Penh, then, finally, we crossed the river for the last time
– this time around. Nondescript. Trucks and vehicles obscuring the view of the
edges of the bridge as we crossed.
Crossing into industrial city-edge Phnom Penh. But that was ok. We got to see the river one more time.
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| Last glimpses of the Mekong - for now |
Next
time, perhaps we’ll follow the river through Tibet, China, Burma, Laos,
Cambodia, and Vietnam. The seed of a
thought begins to form. Perhaps we can
follow the pulse, the promise, the wandering, that is the Mekong and its people.
