Senses

It really has been an amazing trip so far and my favourite place to-date is here, in Chau Doc. If I didn't have a delicate constitution and could deal with the heat better, I'd like to think I could live happily on a house boat. 

We had a relaxing morning by the pool which overlooks the bustling river where two sections of the delta join. Rice is being transported in large and loud chugging boats that are barely afloat, fishermen are dragging nets and hauling them in, and empty pirate-style ships in rustic wood with two brightly coloured eyes on the bow are heading back for another cargo. There's no noticeable smell of a river here even when the tide was exposing the mud despite the fact the water must be filthy... Perhaps the tide flushes it down to the next villages.

This afternoon, we went to Tra Su nature reserve with 850 hectares of eucalyptus-type trees. These are what they use for making the stilts on the shanty houses as they're very tall, strong and straight. We took a motorised boat for a while and then changed to a man rowing us gondola-style. A dramatic silent curtain enveloped us. Not a motorcycle beep nor an engine chug to be heard. But what we saw!  

Three kingfishers (two types) and that's on top of the one Rich spotted at breakfast as well as black-backed swamp hens, white herons, storks and perhaps bitterns. And lots of them. We'd actually swapped our trip today from cycling, to this, as we both concluded the heat was too debilitating for us to entertain pedalling. We couldn't have made a better choice as we were both enthralled by weaving through the narrow waterways between the exposed roots of the leaning trees.  We tried out a monkey bridge over a river which I wondered at the time when they would decide to replace the single narrow tree branch walkway. I concluded most likely when it snaps. It only creaked.

Being on the road is just something else. You simply have to trust your driver is a fairly good judge of width and what's going on inside someone else's head. That's without thinking about the cargo people are carrying on their scooters. At least we were in a car!

After lunch and a big breakfast, I thought I was doing well but ended up with minestrone soup for dinner which was all that I could face after a sudden wave of not-quite-rightness. I'm wary of managing my limited medical supplies and went for some magic pink juice tonight rather than the killer tablets. Feeling a bit better, I think, but not hungry. Long journey tomorrow which should be fabulous. As long as...