John Edward Cooper’s Notes

[i] Finally, i.e. in contrast to the previous days of the voyage, when we’d been on the Tonlé Sap. Today, we’d been on the Mekong since ca.9.40am.

Saturday 18 February 2017 — 10:39:02
“Towel folding demonstration”


Saturday 18 February 2017 — 10:40:46
Towel folding demonstration by Housekeeping Supervisor Thư Nguyễn


Saturday 18 February 2017 — 10:42:00
Thư Nguyễn


Saturday 18 February 2017 — 10:44:42
“Napkin folding demonstration”


Saturday 18 February 2017 — 10:44:28
Napkin folding demonstration by maître d’ Dary Tep


Saturday 18 February 2017 — 10:44:28 (detail)
Dary Tep


Saturday 18 February 2017 — 10:48:50
Napkin folding demonstration by maître d’ Dary Tep

At ca.11am I ordered the first of a number of beers, and snacked on the dried peas, which were immediately searing-hot to the taste, but only temporarily so.


Saturday 18 February 2017 — 11:29:14
In the Saigon Lounge

Janet wrote, “Just after 12” we “were joined by Y and P. At 12.30pm we went for lunch.… We stayed and chatted until 2.15pm: great fun! At one point I knocked my drink over and it sprayed over [John]. The staff were there instantly to clear up the mess. What service! We returned to our cabin then went up to the sun deck. It was covered by a canopy but it was seriously hot. I found the seats at the table very hard and uncomfortable, and really couldn’t cope with the blubbery people sat around cancering.[ii] Obscene! Made me feel quite sick. So we decamped to the Saigon Lounge. It was much cooler there, and more comfortable. I had a large ‘decaff’ and a couple of biscuits, and later a pineapple and cranberry juice cocktail. I… updated this, and read. At 3.45pm a cooking class (making spring rolls) started. I suddenly felt quite tired, so returned to the cabin to lie down. [It was] much better in the cabin then, as we could see the Mekong and the bank; the cabin felt much bigger. [John] returned soon after, but around 4pm we finally arrived at the border into Vietnam and he left to take photos.” I’d not been watching the progress of the ship out of the window up to this point; I was just aware that we’d stopped. Because we’d been heading downstream, my seeing the customs buildings, etc., on the starboard side made me think they were on the west bank. It was only after I started taking photos, that I realised that the signs in Vietnamese were to the right, and the one in Khmer was to the left, and therefore must be on the east bank. What’s more, the sun was in the wrong place! We must therefore have turned 180° about before dropping anchor. The same had been true at Phnom Penh; we’d been moored on the west bank, yet the view out of our port-side cabin window was of the dock structure, not out across the river. (In fact, that calls to mind the boating holiday on the River Ouse in 1985; our boat was easily manoeuvrable against the current, but not with the current.)

[ii] Cancering — i.e. doing their utmost, by over-exposure of large areas of skin to intense sunlight, to contract melanoma.

Saturday 18 February 2017 — 16:23:48
MV La Marguerite


Saturday 18 February 2017 — 16:35:58
MV La Marguerite


Saturday 18 February 2017 — 16:36:08
MV La Marguerite


Saturday 18 February 2017 — 16:26:06
Cambodia–Vietnam border
←Cambodia Vietnam→


Saturday 18 February 2017 — 16:31:08
Cambodia–Vietnam border


Saturday 18 February 2017 — 16:31:20
Cambodia–Vietnam border: “Thuong Phuoc Border Gate Customs Branch”


Saturday 18 February 2017 — 16:31:20 (detail)
Cambodia–Vietnam border: “Thuong Phuoc Border Gate Customs Branch”


Saturday 18 February 2017 — 16:31:42
Cambodia–Vietnam border: “Thuong Phuoc International Border Gate”


Saturday 18 February 2017 — 16:31:42 (detail)
Cambodia–Vietnam border: “Thuong Phuoc International Border Gate”


Saturday 18 February 2017 — 16:31:56
Cambodia–Vietnam border: “Kohroka Customs and Excise Office”


Saturday 18 February 2017 — 16:31:56 (detail)
Cambodia–Vietnam border: “Kohroka Customs and Excise Office”

“He returned round 4.45pm,” Janet wrote. “I hadn’t slept, just rested, but still felt tired. However, we went up to the sun deck at 5pm to the Ice Cream Party. I wasn’t hungry, but managed mango and apricot sorbet. Delicious and refreshing. It was a lot cooler up there as the sun had gone down a bit.”


Saturday 18 February 2017 — 17:14:24
Leading cattle from the river


Saturday 18 February 2017 — 17:14:24 (detail)
Leading cattle from the river

“Around 5.30pm,” Janet wrote, “we returned to the cabin. I sorted out some laundry, updated this, and shall now have a shower so I don’t need to have one after dinner. [John] slept. At ca.7pm we went for dinner. A good meal and a good laugh.” As usual, the wine flowed freely at dinner, and I made use of the Saigon Lounge bar afterwards as well. “I was ready for bed after that,” Janet continued, “but was outvoted, and we went to the Saigon Lounge — for karaoke!… I was too tired, really, but I stayed until 9.40pm — was I the only sober person there? — after [John’s] rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody, which impressed everyone.” I was singing along to Bohemian Rhapsody, when suddenly I found the microphone thrust into my hands! When the guitar riff of the hard rock interlude started I imitated the head-banging as done in the movie Wayne’s World. After the song was finished, one younger man, on a table a couple of rows forward of ours, looked at me and, giving a “like” gesture (), exclaimed, “My man!” Most of the passengers were older people, our age or older, but he and his cronies were perhaps in their forties. After Janet left, I stayed on with P and Y; and after they left, the same younger man waved me over to join them. There was no one nearby able or willing to partner me with Sonny and Cher’s I Got You Babe, so I did both parts! I also did Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da with my best Jamaican accent, before leaving to go back down to the cabin.

[Sunday 19 February 2017]