Chau Doc #1

Now begins our Victoria Hotel tour, the first of three in a row. Marc got us a room in the Victoria Chau Doc because it's the only hotel in Chau Doc with a swimming pool. We were on the third (of 3) floors with a terrace, overlooking the river and the pool. The room and hotel are standard Victoria, which means colonial style, very dark wood, and we had to keep reminding ourselves that it's not British-in-India colonial, but French-in-Vietnam colonial. Just as at the Victoria Can Tho, there is a large loom in the lobby with a woman weaving fine cotton scarves, and traditional Vietnamese musical instruments scattered around.

We didn't know what to expect from Chau Doc. If we came here in 2011 we didn't really know it; we didn't always know where we were stopping, so maybe we did and maybe we didn't, but nothing seemed too familiar. Our hotel was very near the market, which of course made us so happy, and between us and the market was a big riverfront park, with lots of statues (mostly of fish, but also of people) and benches and a strange light-canopied walkway. At night, the park is filled with families, and the little kids drive these small motorized cars, like maniacs. Even the tiniest of kids drive them, but we finally figured out that some are radio controlled, so the dad walks next to them steering and stopping. Groups of boys kick soccer balls, and large groups of kids in karate uniforms practice. And as is standard in Vietnam, there are pieces of exercise equipment all through the park. Marc got on one and dubbed it the nausea-inducing device, which made me laugh.

The hotel seems to exist primarily and almost solely to service huge buses of tour groups. They arrive en masse, dozens at a time filling the lobby with fanny-packed people in giant sneakers and more dozens of suitcases. We think they arrive, sleep, eat a very early breakfast as soon as the restaurant opens and are then whisked away on a boat somewhere, and then return and leave. One hundred percent not our way to travel; in fact, it would be our worst nightmare. But it did mean that the pool was mostly empty during the day, and breakfast could be leisurely as long as we weren't there at 6am.

We didn't want to eat at the hotel and Marc went out scouting restaurants for dinner while I lay by the pool, a system that works for us both. He gets to wander around looking at menus in peace (a task I don't enjoy). He'd asked for recommendations at the front desk, and the woman looked at him in bewilderment: why don't you eat here? He pressed, and finally she drew a spot on the map of a restaurant she said she didn't really know much about. When he tried to find it, the location didn't even exist. Finally he found a place -- Bay Bong 2 -- and when he was there it looked like an interesting restaurant. When we both got there later in the day, it was completely packed like a cafeteria, no places to sit, and extremely rude waiters who dismissed us with the wave of a hand. I became entirely overwhelmed and just felt like I couldn't possible manage it, which is a terrible feeling. I feel like my overwhelm limits us and takes away opportunities we might end up enjoying, but it was too insane. So we wandered around hoping we could recognize a place to eat, and nearby we found a small restaurant with giant fish tanks facing the street, and a young woman dashed out with a menu that included both pictures and some English, so we found our spot and it was wonderful. I'm never sure about ordering shrimp or prawns because most of the time they're big and come with head and legs and whole body intact and I cannot deal with that head because just dealing with things that look like themselves alive is too much for me whoo boy. Marc is always glad to remove the heads and peel them, but I don't want to add that effort to his own enjoyment of his dinner, but still I went ahead and ordered fried shrimp and it was headless and WONDERFUL. Marc ordered baby clams, also super great.

For dinner the second night he'd scouted the area past our hotel in the other direction and found two options, the second of which was a bigger version of the place we'd eaten the night before, with huge fish tanks featuring all kinds of possibilities, from lots of kinds of fish to a few kinds of shrimp to a variety of clams and even geoduck clams, and lots of turtles, and oysters YES PLEASE. It was so good we ate there two nights in a row. I got the fried shrimp both nights, and I wish I'd counted how many were on the plate, but it was maybe twice as many as you usually get when you order fried shrimp. The first night, one of the women came over and showed us that we were supposed to dump the shells and trash in the small trash can at our table (lesson learned!). Marc got clams and grilled squid the first night, and shrimp and baked oysters and a salad to share the second night. The oysters were just amazing, topped with crunchy bits of peanuts maybe, and else something that was so delicious I smile just remembering it. The food was great, and the people who worked there were friendly and helpful. The restaurant was right next to the river and we all -- patrons and wait staff alike -- watched the ferries arrive and leave, arrive and leave, arrive and leave, always interesting. I finally watched my clock, and it took five minutes for the ferry to dock, all the motorcycles and cars to leave, a new load to come on board, and the ferry to leave again.

When we were paying for our second dinner, the woman who was taking our money seemed like the kind of woman who'd be your best friend, one you would just talk about your day with, confide your worries and fears, hear hers, share gossip, and always be glad to spend time with. She smiled when I showed her my translation of 'delicious' and once again I completely failed to grasp the pronunciation, even though I tried and she laughed. They always seem surprised when we say hello and thank you in Vietnamese.

We weren't in a huge rush to get to the next hotel up the mountain, so we leisured our morning away and then hopped in a taxi for the 4.1-mile journey to our next Victoria Hotel in Chau Doc, up Nui Sam.