Chau Doc is a great place to experience cultural diversity in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. Chinese, Cham and Khmer communities – and their mosques, Buddhist temples and churches are sharing their live in Chau Doc area. The best thing to absolve this little town is to walk around. Majority of Cham people are living across the river from Chau Doc – you can reach there by a ferry boat (1000 VND = 3 cents ).
It is a likable place. To be honest, making my way down south from northern Vietnam wasn’t always easy; it wasn’t the friendliest places. But I met the nicest people in the Mekong Delta including Chau Doc. People were laid back, food was great and the scenery was different. The Mekong Delta felt like a whole different country to me.
For two days in Chau Doc, I went to hiking in Sam Mountain, walked around the Cham people’s village, and of course ate a lot of local specialties. Here are photos from Chau Doc, the Mekong delta of Vietnam.
I quite liked Chau Doc, it’s pretty relaxed. I had my first motorbiking experience in SE Asia there, and also of course drove to the Sam mountain, nice views from there. The most interesting thing I ate there was the Potentially Evil Chicken, which looked very evil indeed, but actually tasted quite ok 🙂 Did you try it?
Great pictures! You really captured Chau Doc well!
LOVE that rainbow shot!!!!!!! What a great place.
I liked Chau Duc too. It’s really quite different from the rest of Vietnam and the people are indeed more relaxed and friendly. Seeing your photos, I was reminded that that’s how they pump fuel into their motorbikes/scooters. Great view from Sam Mountain.
I miss the cut up and dried banana snack already! YUMMIE!
Oh I miss Vietnam. If I didn’t love San Francisco so much, I’d move to Vietnam in a snap.
Well, I’m glad someone has something positive to say about Chau Doc! With our Cambodian visa running out of days recently, we took a boat from Phnom Phen to Chau Doc and after a glorious day on the river, we stepped off the boat in Chau Doc into darkness and a HUGE fistfight between the moto-taxi drivers fighting for our fare. It was incredibly dangerous for both me and my wife. We grabbed our stuff, walked a block away, and the mass followed us and started to fight AGAIN! Totally violent. I remember at one point I took my backpack and ran at them screaming at the top of my lungs to “SHUT THE F&*K UP!” They couldn’t care less and kept on swinging.
Some kind Samaritan, a tour guide for others on our boat, stuffed us in their car and said “I’m Vietnamese and I’m afraid for your safety.”
We’ve traveled a lot, and Chau Doc was the single most disappointing place we visited. But, it’s clearly clouded by our experience on arrival. We hate that we feel anything but warmth toward any place we’ve been privileged to visit but Chau Do stands out.
Keep it up and thank you for helping to change our opinion about Chau Doc. Well, not change, but temper it a little. 🙂
Russ
Chau Doc seems like a pretty amazing place. In college I was able to go on backpacking trips to both Vietnam and Peru. However the only reason I was able to do this is because I got a lot of financial advice that made college more affordable. It more than any other place helped propel me on the financial road that allowed me to go on these trips.