Six of the coolest towns on the Mekong river
Silk factories, stilt houses, floating markets, flower farms, temples - you’ll find them all in the towns and villages along the Mekong River.
CAI BE
Cai Be and its floating marketsCredit: iStock
Most towns are set back from the ever-flooding Mekong, but Cai Be is an exception. Its mouldy French colonial church appears to float on the waterlily-tangled water, and its market becomes mobile as locals take to rowboats piled with greens and tropical fruit, their wares advertised on the ends of long wooden poles. Although there are no great sights, wandering rewards you, since back streets are lined with shops and small businesses where locals make sweets, rice noodles or mahogany furniture, and sell everything from bonsai trees to computers. Innumerable cafes and sampans for trips along canals tempt you to idleness. See vietnam.travel
SA DEC
A flower farm in Sa Dec.Credit: iStock
If you’re a fan of 20th-century, Vietnam-born French writer Marguerite Duras (and why wouldn’t you be) you’ll want to visit Sa Dec where she lived and wrote The Lover. Lover Huynh Thuy Le’s villa is a literary shrine full of dusty antique furniture, and glows with the light from stained-glass windows. Irrespective, you’ll enjoy Sa Dec’s crumbling waterside mansions and rickety temples, while surrounding flower farms have become an Instagrammer’s delight. The town’s markets are perhaps best however: gold-toothed grannies sell leafy greens, scrumptious mangoes and rambutans, and frogs and fish that wriggle in plastic buckets. See vietnam.travel
TAN CHAU
Working a silk loom at a traditional silk factory in Tan Chau.Credit: Getty Images
This Vietnamese town just short of the Cambodian border is noted for its silk manufacturing. Glorious lengths of shimmering silk emerge from rattling and clanking machines. The most coveted is black, dyed with a local berry and dried in the breeze. The town is also devoted to mat weaving, slipper making and eel farming, and surrounded by rice fields and villages where monks snooze and kids show off by leaping into the Mekong from bridges. Getting into a water taxi is the best way to admire Tan Chau’s rather dishevelled beauty, and catch cooling breezes. See vietnam.travel
PHNOM PENH
The evening rush in Phnom Penh.Credit: iStock
Shabby Phnom Penh is in the throes of change. Plunder the Russian Market (officially Tuol Tompoung) for souvenirs and knock-off clothing, then move on to the sleek art galleries and fashion boutiques of Streets 178 and 240. For contrasts of another sort, Tuol Sleng Museum is devoted to the horrors of the Khmer Rouge, while the National Museum flaunts the glories of Khmer culture, also seen at the stunning Silver Pagoda, where jewel-encrusted Buddhas smile. You could begin your day along Sisowath Quay to admire the Mekong bustle over coffee and a baguette, and end your day here too, at one of its cheerful bars. See tourismcambodia.org
KOH OKNHA TEI
Traditional stilt houses in Koh Oknha Tei, on Silk Island.Credit: Alamy
This riverine island within sight of Phnom Penh, nicknamed Silk Island, has three villages inhabited by farmers and fishermen, but with a long history of traditional silk weaving. Looms are set up in the cool beneath stilt houses and create a constant clack as village women weave beautiful Khmer fabrics from as many as 60 silken threads at a time. Meanwhile kids play desultory football beneath shady mango trees; some cruise companies organise school visits. Stupas and small Buddhist temples decorated with lurid plasterwork animals rise out of the rural landscape. See tourismcambodia.org
ANGKOR BAN
The Temple in Angkor Ban Village, on the banks of the Mekong.Credit: iStock
Angkor Ban, some 80 kilometres upriver from Phnom Penh, is one of few Cambodian villages left intact by the Khmer Rouge regime. Some of its wooden stilt houses are over a century old, and its ornate riverside temple is crowded with statues overseen by a giant yellow Buddha. There isn’t much to do, but the residents are friendly, skinny cows graze, chickens cackle, and you can pluck bananas from the trees. Get a blessing from the monks or visit a local house, which typically has window frames and doors painted lucky blue See tourismcambodia.org
The writer travelled as a guest of Travelmarvel.
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