Pilgrimage: Mekong

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.

Commerce at the floating markets in Can Tho, Vietnam

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.

 

Dragon Fruit

Juvenile Bananas

Flooded Ricefields

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.

Relocating bricks

Who was teasing whom?!

Cattle Onshore

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.

 

Rory moving upstairs

The new bridge

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.

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.

 

Islands in the river

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!

The best shot I took (it's a dolphin, by the way)

Living in and on the river

Island living

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.

Cooling in the river

And in the morning – it was still there!  Breathing.  Again.  A Mekong Morning.  Nice.

Mekong Morning - I

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. 

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.