Our boat has dropped anchor in the middle of the Mekong river. We’re not going anywhere. We’re waiting for permission to cross the border from Cambodia into An Giang province, Vietnam. Not long ago, an official-looking boat motored out from shore to meet us. Uniformed personnel from the motorboat boarded our boat, but they didn’t stay long. They returned to shore – with all of our passports.
I hate when I have to give up my passport for whatever reason. But if some guys in military uniforms want them, I guess the best thing to do is to give it to them, eh?
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Vietnam, or more correctly, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, will be the first communist country we’ve set foot in. We don’t hear much about communism these days. Other than Vietnam, the only other countries that are still communist are China, Cuba, Laos, and North Korea.
But what does it even mean to be communist now? I guess it depends on which country you’re in. It will be interesting to find out what “communism” means in Vietnam.
Most people who come to Vietnam arrive at one of the big, bustling coastal cities. But we’re coming from Cambodia, via the Mekong river, into the extreme southwest part of the country. Things around here are quiet and laid back. It’s kind of like tip-toeing in through the back door.
An Giang Province
The area we’re waiting to enter is An Giang province. (Pronounced “anne yang,” at least if you’re from around here). There’s a mix of people in this region — ethnic Vietnamese, of course, ethnic Chinese, Khmers (ethnic Cambodians), Chams, and others.
We first ran into Cham people in the floating village near Lake Tonle Sap. (Remember?) Their religion was primarily Islam. But most Chams in this region are Hindus. We usually think of the population of Vietnam as just being “Vietnamese,” but being from Vietnam can mean that you’re from any one of more than fifty distinct ethnic groups. Who knew?
People in the United States are only now starting to think of Vietnam as something beyond that place where bad things happened fifty years ago. In the library I use, all Vietnamese-related books except for two really old ones are about the war, not about the country or its people.
In the lowlands of An Giang province, the Mekong river starts to break up into fingers. The fingers of water spread out to become the famous Mekong Delta. This is one of the most fertile regions on earth, and so over the ages, one of the most prized.
A thousand years ago, in the time of Angkor Wat, ancient Khmer’s defeated Vietnamese and Chams to claim this area as their own. Many Cambodians still refer to this region as “Lower Cambodia.” It’s one of those places like the wine-growing region of Alsace, on the French border with Germany and Switzerland, where neighboring peoples have battled each other for centuries for control of the land.
A thousand years before the Khmers showed up, another, even more ancient civilization existed here. There’s a site near here where archeologists are excavating the ruins of the ancient city of Óc Eo. And guess what? Among artifacts found at the site are coins and medallions from ancient Rome. Whoa. How did those get there way back then?
The Old World – Eastern World Connection
Óc Eo is believed to be the city named “Kattigara” on maps created by the Greek geographer and map-maker Claudius Ptolomy. (Did you know that the Greeks and the Romans knew something about Eastern Asia? Neither did I).
Fifteen hundred years later, when New World mariners set their sights on the Far East, they used Ptolomy’s maps to get there. On Columbus’ 4th voyage, in 1502, he set out for the “Cape of Cattigara.” (Cattigara = Kattigara). When he reached Costa Rica, Columbus thought he was close. He wrote that he had received news of the “gold mines of Ciamba, which I was seeking”. Columbus’ “Ciamba” was “Champa,” the original land of the Cham people. I don’t remember learning about any of this in school, do you? But I digress.
Getting back to the present day, the official-looking boat finally returned. Everything seemed to be in order. We can have our passports back. Yay! Now we can cross the border and make our first stop in Vietnam. It’s a little island nearby called “Evergreen Island.” We’ve been told that things haven’t changed there in quite a while. Let’s go see.
To be continued…
