Five reasons why you must embark on a Mekong river cruise
A woman wearing a conical Non La hat sells fruit from a heavily-laden sampan. Children launch themselves, laughing, from a stilted house into the sluggish water. Here on the Mekong, life is lived as much on and in the water as it is on the tranquil, green banks.
The Mekong flows 2,700 miles from the Tibetan Plateau to the South China Sea, with the most commonly navigated section for cruises running through Cambodia and Vietnam. Although it flows past many of the region’s major cities – Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap are visited by almost all itineraries, and many lines extend trips with a flight to Hanoi too – a cruise on this laidback river is as much about gentle immersion into a pastoral existence as it is about ticking off major sights.
Cruises here run year round, and while May to October’s wet season can bring short sharp showers (and more mosquitoes – pack repellent), travelling in the dry season between November and April can lead to truncated itineraries, as water levels drop.
Ho Chi Minh City
Almost all Mekong cruises begin or end in Vietnam’s southern powerhouse. Formerly – and, though unofficially, frequently still – known as Saigon, a visit here is a thrilling, dizzying, immersive whirl.
Skyscrapers rub shoulders with ancient temples, market vendors dish up fast and fragrant street food on every corner, and crossing the street through the never-ending flow of mopeds is always an adventure.
Though it’s the country’s most modern city, it’s also rich in Vietnam War history, including the stark War Remnants Museum, and the Cu Chi Tunnels, where you can crawl through a section of the underground maze used by the Vietcong during the conflict – a claustrophobe’s nightmare.
Mekong Delta Life
The contrast between Ho Chi Minh City’s bustling modernity and the slow, tranquil villages of the Mekong Delta is striking. Agrarian scenes that seem little changed by the centuries float by, and activities off ship focus on the everyday life of the local Vietnamese population.
Board flat-bottomed wooden sampans and venture down backwaters to visit villages of stilted houses, floating markets, expansive paddy fields and orchards. Watch local artisans weaving with sedge, making silk, or producing paper, wine or candies from the region’s most common crop, rice. A popular stop for many itineraries is Sa ?éc, a sleepy town most famous as the setting for Marguerite Duras’ autobiographical novel The Lover, where the ornate home of the author’s paramour has been beautifully restored.
Phnom Penh
Three rivers meet in the capital of Cambodia, and this friendly city sprawls along the water with a signature style that pairs Indochinese and colonial French architecture. Although high-rise buildings are becoming more common, it’s still a world away from the sky-scraping metropolises found in neighbouring nations.
Roads teem with tuk-tuks and cyclos (three-wheel bicycle taxis), and bustling, kaleidoscopic markets hum with sounds, and smells. The Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda demonstrate the elegance of classic Khmer design, and the nearby National Museum is home to a collection of ancient sculptures of immense beauty.
More recent, tragic history is commemorated too; at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, where a former Khmer Rouge detention centre houses a chilling collection commemorating thousands of the victims, and at the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek where many of them ended their days. Outside of the city centre, this memorial among the mass graves is, though harrowing, strangely peaceful.
Rural Cambodia
Meandering north, the Mekong passes through the quiet Cambodian countryside, and many cruise lines offer the chance to interact with local villagers. School visits are common, with the children’s infectious and uninhibited friendliness making short work of language barriers.
Cross farmland by plodding ox-cart and learn about cultivation techniques, watch silversmiths at work, and experience a water blessing from monks at the hilltop temple of Wat Hanchey.
Outside Kampong Cham, at the twin holy mountains of Phnom Pros and Phnom Srey, a short climb is rewarded with photo opportunities of gilded Buddhas, cocksure monkeys, and panoramas over the surrounding plains.
The temples of Angkor
A symphony in stone hidden in the jungle, the vast temple complex at Angkor has become visual shorthand for the whole of Cambodia. No trip to the country is complete without a visit to Angkor Wat, the most famous and imposing of the temples, where awe-inspiring scale combines with unexpected intricacy – an astonishing, 800m-long bas-relief carving stretches around the exterior wall.
The seat of the Khmer Empire for six centuries, the huge site is home to hundreds of temples. Don’t miss striking Bayon, where a sea of vast stone faces stare down from 54 towers, or evocative Ta Prohm, where muscular tree roots have all but strangled some structures and you’ll feel nature and civilisation are engaged in a slow but inexorable wrestling match.
Water levels affect whether ships can cruise the Tonle Sap lake to Phnom Krom, the port of Angkor-gateway city Siem Reap, but almost all itineraries include visits to the temples, whether you’re transferred by road from Kampong Cham or Kampong Chhnang, or by air from Phnom Penh.