Châu Đốc, Vietnam, February 7, 2020

Châu Đốc is the best place to enter Vietnam. It’s a five-hour boat ride from Phnom Penh. Do it, if you get the chance. Châu Đốc is deep in the South, in the artificial drained lands of the deep Delta. It’s also where all the best fish sauce comes from. And, it has a large and ancient Muslim community. An amazing place.

Half of the city is on the river, which is the Bassac (or Hậu), the easternmost of the great distributaries of the Mekong, which is also the river of Long Xuyên and Cần Thơ. The floating houses have many advantages, including free fish. Many houses split the difference. On the land side, they look normal, but from the side or the back they stand high on stilts, over the river. Those people can fish from their kitchens.