What better way to travel from Cambodia to Vietnam than by boat down the Mekong?  The boat was virtually empty, with only four other tourists on board.  It was a very overcast, grey day, but Colin and I amused ourselves for most of the five hour trip on the deck at the back of the boat, watching the world go by and listening to our iPods.

Almost our last view of Cambodia

We stopped at a small town close to the Vietnamese border for lunch before switching boats and continuing on to the border crossing.

The sudden appearance of Vietnamese flags marked the border crossing

Almost as soon as we were in Vietnamese waters, everything changed.  Most noticeably, the shape of the small fishing boats were different, and the hats the fisher(people) were wearing also changed shape.  It was also apparent very quickly that Vietnam is a wealthier country than Cambodia. We stayed the night in Chau Doc, which we had thought was a “small” town just over the border.  When we got there, we found it to be a bustling town with a population of 150,000.  It seemed like an interesting town, and we would have stayed longer if we hadn’t already booked a bus to Saigon leaving at 8am the next morning.

Floating village – near Chau Doc

Approaching Chau Doc