- The route begins in Cambodia at Siem Reap and then winds downriver to Tonlé Sap lake, before joining the Mekong Delta and sailing into Vietnam. The final port of call is Vung Tau, in south Vietnam.
- The trio are in Cambodia. Mr Wilman has asked them to select 3 boats to go across the country. Hammond says he is from Birmingham, which is the furthest city in the UK from the sea. He doesn't like boats. May signed up to do a car show, not cookery, not restoring frescoes and not boats. Hammond says he doesn't trust a vehicle that is not in the same place where you parked it. Also, boats sink, and cars don't do that.
The task is to travel from Siem Reap in North Cambodia to Vung Tau at the bottom of the Mekong Delta, using only the waterways of the country. The trio go on their bicycles to find a location from where they can launch their boats. The river they start at is dry in June, due to a drought. It hasn't rained for months, plus China has put a dam on the river that feeds into Cambodia. The trio has to travel several miles to find a lake.
Hammond gets a speed boat, a scarab (2 V8 engines with 850 BHP, costing BP 23,000). Jeremy gets a PBR (Patrol Boat, River. 2 V8 engines with 700 BHP, costing BP 100,000). Hammond this might be sensitive as Cambodia and Vietnam fought a war many decades ago and Cambodians used PBRs against Vietnam. Jeremy says its OK since Vietnam won. May arrives in a river boat. It has a 4-cylinder diesel engine with 99 BHP. It is a very slow boat. Built in 1939, costing BP 16,000. Jeremy says that his PBR is not an original and was built from the ground up. Its like a kit car. Its called the Du Ma or boat machine.
The trio start their 500-mile voyage. They cross the Tonle Sap Lake. The lake is only 80 miles across, due to the drought. In a normal monsoon year is grows to almost 5 times that size. Hence the lake is not deep enough, and so the trio are restricted to driving their boats at 7 mph. The lake was full of underwater fishing nets, which snagged the engines. PBR is a jet boat is not impacted, but Hammond's & May's propellers get caught multiple times.
The US built the PBR in the 1960s as a fast patrol boat for their wars in Southeast Asia. The boat was built by Hatteras, a boat builder in the US. Range of 250 miles, cruising speed of 25 knots. Hatteras converted their 31-foot pleasure cruiser into the PBR in 6 days. Today, there are no working PBRs left. The jets on the PBR are made by Jacuzzi. Eventually May and Hammond get stuck, and Jeremy has to go back and tow them out. Jeremy reckons that Hammond's boat was the filming set for many a low-grade pornography movie.
The lake has the town of Pursat at the edge and that's where the trio park for the night and have dinner. The thing was that Cambodia had massive food shortages at the time of Pol Pot and they resorted to eating insects like dragon flies, tarantulas, water beetles and crickets. Pursat is a floating town, a Venice of the East. They load up on supplies.
Day 2. The trio resume their journey across the lake. Jeremy crosses the lake, but the mouth of the river is densely packed with weeds. Hammond and May follow being towed by the locals. The weeds jam Jeremy's intake valves and the PBR can't get to the river. May and Hammond slice through the weed with their propellers, while Jeremy is towed. Eventually, the river opens, and Jeremy & Hammond opens the speed taps. May follows slowly. They are in the Tonle Sap River. It is the only river in the world which changes direction as per the season. Jeremy and Hammond have a drag race and Hammond wins. They try wave jumping and other sports. Hammond and Jeremy reach Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh. Pol Pot was a dictator and killed 25% of Cambodia's population. Hammond and Jeremy wait for May at the Foreign Correspondent's Club or the FCC. The trio go to a local market and find all the fake branded watches.
Mr Hun Sen has ruled Cambodia for 31 years and his title is "Lord Prime Minister & Supreme Military Commander". His wife Bun Rany has the title "Most glorious & upright person of genius".
Jeremy installs a lavatory and a air conditioner on his PBR. May installs a drink fridge. Jeremy and May have changed the named of Hammond's boat from "Razzle Dazzle" to "Jizzle Drizzle". Day 3, 150 miles into their journey, the trio leave the Tonle Sap and enter the mighty Mekong river. The volume of fish caught in the Mekong is 13 times than the volume of fish caught in all of US inland waterways combined. 60 million people derive their livelihood from the Mekong.
The trio reach a Vietnamese border checkpoint. They cross into Vietnam. Here the Mekong is full of commerce. Jeremy and Hammond reach the town of Chau Doc, which was off the Mekong into one of its channels. On Jan 31st, 1968, Chau Doc was overrun as part of the Tet offensive. A flotilla of PBRs brought in US troops to rescue the civilians. Sgt. Drew Dix rescued American nurse Maggie Frankcot. Drew was awarded a Presidential Citation. Maggie later married the captain of the PBR that sped her away, Lt. William H Buddy O'Brien.
The Trio decides to push on at night, but Jeremy is the only one equipped with night lights and satellite navigation. He takes a short cut to get back to the Mekong and again gets stuck in weed. He pays a local to clear the weeds. Hammond's engine overheats and starts to backfire. The next morning, they find their way back to the river. They cross a floating market, where the PBR is uncontrollable at low speeds and bumps into everything. They eventually reach the Mekong. They can't follow the Mekong as they would end up in the sea. So, Jeremy navigates into another canal. Soon, they are lost in the canals. Soon they reach a dead end and are beached.
Only the rising tide the next day saves the trip and they trace their steps back. Jeremy finds the right canal. It was a heavy traffic canal. Hammond's engine again overheats. They are 100 Kms away from Vung Tau. When Jeremy runs low on fuel, he calls a refueling boat which is a commercial service provided in the Mekong. Jeremy passes through the National Biosphere. But in the war, it was called the forest of assassins. It was the perfect place for Vietcong to launch guerrilla warfare against the Americans. It was the job of PBRs to root out the assassins. Each PBR has 4 crew. They had twin 50 caliber guns upfront and a single 50 at the back. 40 mm grenade launcher, 60 mm mortars, Claymore mines, rocket launchers. The PBRs worked in tandem with fighter jets or the helicopters.
To avoid the snipers, the PBRs drove fast and close to the banks, to reduce the reaction time. Hammond repairs his boat and the trio are all on their way. 20 miles to go to their destination. But then it starts raining very heavily and Jeremy is lost. They emerge into the South China Sea, which they were trying to avoid as their boats are not designed for it. The sea is rougher, but the trio goes for it. The choppy seas toss the boats around. South China Seas carry $ 3.5 trillion worth of trade every year, so these are busy shipping lanes. Even the camera boats are in trouble.
Eventually the trio reach the Vung Tau.
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