Frontier Town

Early this morning we made our way to the Phuong Trang bus station to catch the bus to Chau Doc. It's a different station to the one in the centre of town, serving the southwest of the country, and involves a transfer. We were told to arrive an hour earlier than the departure time, which seemed a little excessive, but made sense when we realised the station is half an hour out of town.

At the station, we filled a hole with xoi bap (sticky rice made salty-sweet with peanuts, coconut and sugar) from a vendor at the bus station. Once again, all the Vietnamese we met proved friendly and eager to help us navigate our way around.

The journey was uneventful, with only one quick rest stop, as we reached Chau Doc in a mere five and a half hours. Having heard about other travellers' epic 18-hour journeys across the country, this was but a blink of an eye.

We arrived at our swanky hotel, the Victoria, which is the poshest accommodation in town. While this has nothing on the fanciest hotels in HCMC, it is a little break of luxury in between countries. We chose it largely because it offers its own speedboat crossing to Phnom Penh for residents, which given the apparent (un)reliability of other border-crossing services, seemed to be a wise investment.

On arrival, we were unexpectedly upgraded to a river-side room, which afforded us a view over the confluence of the Mekong and Bassac rivers. The staff bowed and scraped, offering us a cold towel and drink at reception. This treatment jarred a little with our rumpled appearance and enormous rucksacks, but was appreciated. Judging from the other guests, the hotel seems to cater to a more mature and affluent clientele.

Everything in the hotel, from massage service to bar drinks and dinners, is expensive by Vietnamese standards but comparable to UK prices. Nevertheless, we decided to take dinner in the smart restaurant and investigate the rest of Chau Doc for lunch options.

Chau Doc could be a pretty little border town catering to the steady stream of foreigners crossing into and out of neighbouring Cambodia. However, aside from some keen cyclo and boat operators, the town has not become a kitsch tourist trap. The roads are poorly surfaced and the market, which takes up much of the town centre, clearly functions well for the local residents. This is all as it should be - a town in which Vietnamese live and can afford to live - so it was surprising to discover a café that wouldn't look out of place in central Saigon.

Memory Delicatessen's plush seating, wooden tables and neat glass cabinet of patisseries are in stark contrast to the surrounding establishments with their bare lighting, stainless steel tables and small plastic stools. Given that we had only a few thousand dong left, we were attracted largely by the "Visa welcome" sign, rather than the menu of burgers and pizza.

With limited choice of food, we ordered a small four-cheese pizza that owed more to Nagoya than to Naples. Followed by a heroic slice of chocolate bread pudding (!) and peanut ice cream, it was certainly the least healthy food we have eaten since arriving.

Ironically, when we came to pay, the junior staff did not know how to work the credit card machine. Once they had found the machine and blown the dust from it, several abortive attempts demonstrated that it may never have worked and that this is still primarily a cash-based society.

It is odd that even in a warm and humid environment, a sauna can still be a pleasurable experience. We availed ourselves of the hotel sauna in the afternoon (measuring 70°C and 30% on the German-made thermometer and hygrometer respectively) and generally felt quite pampered.

In keeping with the colonial architecture and atmosphere of the hotel, we joined the other guests on the verandah overlooking the river for pre-dinner cocktails. It was quite disgustingly decadent.

The restaurant was a collision between West and East, with the now alien sight of knives and forks, a bread basket and butter. The menu was split between Vietnamese classics and French cuisine. The wine list featured 'world wines' and no sign of the humble Vang Dalat, much to our disappointment.

Dinner was beautifully presented and the waitresses bemused by, but understanding of, our vegetarianism. After some confusion over the menu, which annotates all fish dishes as suitable for vegetarians, we ordered and received fresh spring rolls and a banana flower salad with tofu.

Filled with rice noodles, tofu and herbs, the fresh rice paper rolls always risk being a little bland, so it is the peanut dipping sauce that jazzes them up. The banana flower is an exciting purple blossom that grows at the end of a bunch of bananas. Inside, the yellowy heart can be used like an artichoke. Our salad was full of chewy sliced banana flower leaves, peanuts and tofu.

The main course was fried glass noodles with vegetables and tofu, and pineapple fried rice, served in the fruit itself. The dishes were tasty, although I felt the noodles would have benefited from a squeeze of lime and a slice of chilli, while the rice needed a bit of sweet-sour to lift the flavours. Whether the tastes were tamed for international guests, I'm not sure, but they felt a little muted.

Two courses, plus wine and coffee came to a little less than we would expect to pay in an average restaurant in England, but the ambiance was far superior.