Today was a day of leisure. There is little of note to do in Chau Doc. We visited the Sam mountain and the cave pagoda on a brief trip a few weeks ago. Our accommodation this time is certainly a great deal more salubrious than at that time.
Breakfast was a similar 'East meets West' affair to yesterday's evening meal. French bread, patisseries and conserves sat alongside steamed dumplings, rice porridge and exotic fruits. The omelette chef can also whip up a noodle soup if you so desire. We desired and ate a bowl of noodles, but also made inroads on the other buffet items.
After breakfast, we repaired to the poolside - an island of leisure between the busy marketplace and the industrious river - and attended to some tedious travel administration. A booking in Langkawi had fallen through owing to local flooding. We commiserated with the owner, whose property had been destroyed and made alternative arrangements. We prepared our visa documentation for tomorrow and tried to figure out a safe way to store the thousands of photos we have taken so far.
We repaired to the balcony and watched as a brief rain shower rolled in, rippling the surface of the pool and causing a flurry of activity from the pool attendant, who hurriedly brought in the cushions.
Shortly after the rain had passed, the sun set dramatically over the Sam mountain and orange light danced on the rapidly dissipating clouds. I ran for my camera to capture the moment and suffered the problem that many a photographer working in tropical climates dreads - lens fog. Coming from the arctic cold of the air-conditioned hotel room to the humidity of the outside world, the moisture in the air condensed instantly on the glass surface and left me looking at an impressionistic smudge of the scene I wanted to shoot. This has happened before, and it takes around half an hour for the temperature of the camera to equalise with that of the environment. I knew by this point that it would be dark and gave up. Such views are best remembered, as no photograph will do them justice.
After guiltily indulging in another cocktail (OK, two - it was happy hour), we decided to exit the hotel and 'keep it real' with some down-home cooking. We returned to Thanh Tinh - a small and simple vegetarian restaurant (although that word seems a little grand), which we had visited during our last stay in Chau Doc.
The kitchen and the restaurant are separate, so that the food is prepared elsewhere and brought across the street to the table. The menu is extensive (by vegetarian standards) and the presentation is unfussy - everything is served by default with a mound of steamed rice - but the flavours are incredible.
We both ordered a clay pot dish of mock meat and tofu. The soy 'meat' arrived in a slightly thin, sweet, peppery sauce with an intense flavour. I understand that this dish is traditionally made using fish sauce and the ersatz version they used was an impressive rendering of the real thing.
An early night was called for, as we have a boat crossing in the morning to begin the next leg of our journey in Cambodia.
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