Getting on is the hard part. Once you’re there, things are fine. We’re in Cambodia. It has been a five-hour bus trip from Siam Reap, not nearly as much traffic as expected, to Kampong Cham. Embarking can be more than a touch difficult when you’re really clambering down a slippery little path/stairway hacked into the banks of the Mekong River. Waiting down there is the good ship Saigon Pandaw, newest in the 10-strong fleet run by the wonderfully named Irrawaddy Flotilla Company.
We spend seven days aboard and generally speaking, apart from some mildly dodgy gangways and the occasional steep climb of scores of steps (well, this river floods so new embarkation places have to be cut each year and this is the dry season anyway), it is a satisfying cruise.
The mighty and muddy Mekong is rather less mighty than it is in wetter seasons, so the ship tends to be moored considerably lower down the bank than would be ideal. The sight of crew member, many of them slight of stature, humping their guests’ luggage down the bank is almost guilt-engendering and almost every boarding and disembarkation throughout the cruise required steadying hands. .
This is our ship’s maiden voyage. Locally built, she is the newest in a fleet of Pandaws designed and finished as replicas of colonial river steamers, good-looking with lots of in teak and brass. She is about 60 metres long, 11 wide with a very shallow draft which allow her, as we discover to access remote areas, unreachable by other vessels.
Would have been a bit better if we had not had a cabin at the stern, directly over the engines. Touch noisy. Advice: Ask for the most forward cabin available.
Our cabin, en suite, is comfortable, after the first night when it is invaded by more flying insects than should be allowed to exist. Minor joinery, new ship, problem fixed first thing next morning. Meals are good, not outstanding but quite interesting and satisfying. Wine of a lower quality is free, better stuff on sale. All drinks at the very pleasant bar are free, though not one brand is known to me. Gin and tonic turns out to be the best idea.
All passengers on this voyage are members of our tour, put together and guided by Travelrite, and a very pleasant group they are, Australians from at least four States.
Excursions each day took us up many stairs, (266 steps on the first of them to Wat Hanchey, 303 down), by oxcart (perhaps the least comfortable form of transport known to man and beast) to Kampong Tralach and by cyclo to the Royal Place in Phnom Penh.
Also in Phnom Penh must visit to the Foreign Correspondents’ Club (was one. Long ago) which is a great spot from which to watch the river traffic, eat respectable tucker and drink good wine. Somehow I don’t think it’s a club any longer. More a business.
And so the days and night pass, gently enough. . . . . Fish farms, brick works, canals, markets floating and otherwise, occasionally in smaller boats, border clearance as we sail into Vietnam. Coming to Saigon (which not many people call Ho Chi Minh City) we admire a fine bridge, paid for and built by your taxes and mine. Don't think the locals know that.
A quick lesson in merlot
When is a merlot not a merlot? You may well ask. Today’s answer is: It depends on which language you’re speaking. Okay, this is the travel section of this learned journal, not the wine column, and here’s the story.
Here we were in Siem Rep, in the excellent Meridien hotel, said to be the nearest quality accommodation to the great, grey Ankor Wat and its attendant crumbling edifices. It had been a hardish day and I decided to break my longstanding rule of avoiding room service whenever possible. Ordered something innocuous (i.e. club sandwich) then asked for two glasses of merlot.
No good, not on the list. Well, it is. No it’s not. Look here, I have the list in my hand and under Red Wines I see a Cabernet Sauvignon, a Shiraz, then a Merlot. No sir, there’s a merLOT (rhyme it with thanks a lot). And so it proved to be.
Lesson: Just because you think you pronounce a French word roughly correctly, it is not quite fair to expect a junior Cambodian hotel worked to do the same.
It was a perfectly good merlot, as were the Madfish reds we had another night at the bar, with an excellent cheese plate. As I have already said, a fine hotel this, very well run staff, a great, big pool and just a $2 tuk tuk ride into town.
Further down the Mekong, in Vietnam, we sampled and enjoyed a dish of morning glory. I was tempted to put a capital at the start of each word, but the editor likes to maintain high standards in this learned journal.
We are taken to Ben Nay restaurant not far from the Cu Chi tunnels, some 65 miles from Saigon,. It’s a good looking , well run establishment, and a considerable relief after the harrowing visit to the grim tunnel area.
So as part of one of the best-value meals I have ever had, $US10, we are served a dish of what we are assured is morning glory. Turns out to be greens, a bit like spinach and not at all like the vine that flowers so colourfully here in subtropical Brisbane. Biosecurity Queensland lists ours as ipomoea indica, a weed.
Further research reveals that “Ipomoea aquatica, known as water spinach, water morning glory, water convolvulus, ong-choy, kang-kung, or swamp cabbage, is popularly used as a green vegetable, especially in East and Southeast Asian cuisines”.
I am able to report that it is certainly edible, no doubt nutritious but not really very tasty. No further comment.
