This boutique river cruise offers an unfiltered glimpse into Mekong life

We, too, enter the stream of daily life peddling past the market chock full of greens and slithering fish, chickens and snails, past roosters scratching around rice laid out to dry in front of stilt houses where more kids race out to chant "hello", past banana and mango trees heavy with fruit, past barber shacks, mounds of rice straw and motor-cycle repair shops. A right turn and we cycle now along a narrow, elevated road framed by rippling emerald rice paddies and pink lotus ponds, sugar palms waving in the breeze.

Our destination is the serene Wat Kampong Tralach Leu Buddhist monastery. Taking off our shoes, we sit in the cool of its ancient pagoda whose centuries-old, colour-saturated murals tell the story of the Buddha's life, a curious novice shyly peaking at us through shuttered windows. We're here to talk with a saffron-clad 80-year-old monk and, through our excellent guide, Smiley, to learn about his life and the life of the monastery.

We discover that Cambodia has about 5000 pagodas, which are not sequestered religious institutions at all but integral to communities as educational centres as well as shelters for orphans, the homeless and animals. Boys can study for a year or more, then leave and return whenever they wish, like our host, who arrived as a novice and came back 14 years ago when his wife died. Tying red threads around our wrists, he blesses us, and we walk out into the bright sunshine, eyes blinking, surprisingly refreshed.

The slender teak-panelled Toum Tiou II, with just 14 cabins, offers precious opportunities to savour these rhythms of real life up close and personal on a Mekong River cruise. Owned and operated by Compagnie Fluviale du Mekong (or CF Mekong) by CroisiEurope, one of Europe's largest river-cruising companies, and the longest-running luxury operator on the Mekong, the TT2 was purpose-built for cruising the Mekong and its diminutive size and shallow draft mean that it can sail close to shore and access many places that larger ships simply can't manage. It's also relatively new to the Australian market so its nine-day Mekong Discovery cruise is being offered at very affordable prices.

The Mekong is the longest river in south-east Asia, winding 4900 kilometres from its source on the Tibetan plateau, through China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, before emptying via a vast delta into the South China Sea. It has the world's largest inland fishery and its natural floodplain nurtures what is often nicknamed the rice bowl of Vietnam and Cambodia with shimmering paddies stretching to the horizon.

We join the Mekong's vast alluvial artery for a 589-kilometre sashay between Saigon and Siem Reap. (For this eight-night cruise during the dry season, the ship stops at Koh Chen, a five-hour bus ride from Siem Reap, because the vast inland lake of Tonle Sap is too shallow to navigate.) Linking chaotic cities with bucolic farmland, busy ports with stilt-house villages and golden pagodas, this slow-paced journey offers an unfiltered kaleidoscope of river life, punctuated with sampans and barges, floating fishing communities and ferries.

After our morning adventures, the crew welcomes us back on board with cool drinks and chilled towels before lunch of chicken ginger soup, mango salad, deep fried fish fillets with tamarind sauce, stir-fried beef with cashew nuts, and pineapple fritters with honey. The ship's talented chef, Mr Sinat, produces multi-course meals that toggle between Cambodian and Vietnamese specialties and Western dishes like crispy leg of pork, barbecued chicken and pasta. Breakfasts feature tropical fruit, freshly baked pastries and made-to-order omelettes as well as Vietnamese breakfast soups. The meals are among the highlights of the trip.

The ship's teak-panelled bedrooms are compact but there's plenty of storage, big picture windows and bucket-loads of old-Indochine charm. The pebble-floored teak bathrooms have all you need. Everyone hangs out on the spacious shaded roof deck, anyway, where the rattan armchairs and chaise lounges are comfy, the bar is always open, the Wi-Fi strong, and the vistas of river life constantly entertaining.

Our days develop into a comfortable rhythm of engrossing adventures, delectable meals, relaxing deck time, and engaging conversations with our guides and fellow travellers, who are a diverse group from across Australia and the United States.

We start the trip in Ho Chi Minh City, which many locals still affectionately call Saigon. The CF Mekong's river cruisers are the only ones that dock in the heart of the city. Moored there, we enjoy spectacular views of Saigon's neon-lit skyscrapers. I love the fact that our journey begins amid the cacophony of Vietnam's throbbing modern metropolis and continues up the Mekong into the backwaters of rural Cambodia, once the epicentre of the powerful Khmer Empire which built the world's largest religious complex at Angkor Wat between the 9th and 13th centuries.

With our Vietnamese guide, we explore Giac Lam Pagoda, one of the oldest in the city, its frenetic Binh Tay market, the elegant French colonial quarter and the sobering War Remnants Museum as well as the Independence Palace, built as the president of South Vietnam's home and office, where Saigon fell to Communist forces in April 1975. Now it serves as a striking showpiece of mid-century-modern Vietnamese design, although the command bunker can still be visited in the basement.

Cruising through the night along the Cho Gao canal, by morning we've joined the Mekong at My Tho, which our local guide tells us is the Beautiful Ladies City because it's the birthplace of so many Miss Vietnam winners.

After a short transfer by local long boat, we circumnavigate Unicorn Island by bicycle marvelling at the fecundity of fruit growing either side of the path: bananas and coconuts, pomelos and pawpaw, mangoes, dragon fruit, durian, and jackfruit, all of which is sold at the open-air market. There are stops to savour tea made from local honey, pandan leaf, royal jelly, pollen and lime and to watch coconuts being transformed into delectable hard candies before enjoying a concert of traditional folk songs. Our return to the long boat is via sampan along a nipa-palm-fringed canal.

At the bustling port of Sa Dac, we're immersed in the steamy world of French author Marguerite Duras's autobiographical novel The Lover about her affair as a schoolgirl with a Chinese Vietnamese playboy. We visit her lover's ornate home as well as the primary school where her mother was principal, the current principal showing us the records in French and escorting us to a class of bright-eyed children.

Another highlight is a visit to the Tra Su Bird Sanctuary, which greets visitors with multi-coloured bougainvillea gardens and quaint wooden bird houses. We take sampans through the wetlands to marvel at the platter-sized leaves and gorgeous pink flowers of lotuses at water level and the chirping of hundreds of birds whose nests crowd tree branches above. More than 70 species are found here, including the rare painted stork and oriental darter as well as cormorants, herons, and kingfishers. Next, we board motorised long-boats to zip through streams thick with water hyacinths that ripple like lime-green magic carpets, an altogether surreal experience since lining every waterway are Australian paperbarks, which have become a valuable conservation tool for safeguarding the Mekong delta's wetland ecosystem.

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After clearing Cambodian customs on the boat, we have a full day to explore the capital Phnom Penh with Smiley who starts with a nuanced visit to the spectacular Royal Palace, built by King Norodom I in the 1860s when Cambodia was a French protectorate. Cambodia's Buddhist culture is heavily influenced by Hinduism (the gods Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva figure everywhere). Indeed, Angkor Wat was first a Hindu complex before it evolved into a Buddhist temple, which we learn, later, on a visit to the National Museum. All of this can confound many Westerners.

Smiley gives us intriguing clues by explaining how the palace's colour palette incorporates yellow for Buddhism, white for Hinduism and blue for the monarchy. In the imposing Throne Hall, he points out more symbols including the white, four-faced head of the creator god Brahma atop the central spire, the bird-like garudas holding up the roofs, the lions and naga water dragons which guard the entrance, the latter's tails flicking up each roof peak.

We visit the Silver Pagoda, named for its inlaid silver floor tiles but revered for its diamond-encrusted golden Buddha and diminutive emerald crystal Buddha, and the rather incongruous Napoleon Pavilion, a cast-iron villa gifted by Napoleon III after it was built for his Empress Eugenie to attend the opening of the Suez Canal.

That evening, we enjoy an enchanting apsara and folk-dance performance on board the TT2. Under the dictatorship of Pol Pot in the 1970s, the Khmer Rouge destroyed all manifestations of Khmer culture, killing dancers, artisans and the cultured classes. Watching a new generation of dancers and musicians reinvigorate these centuries-old Khmer traditions is one of the trip's life-affirming experiences.

Another is a visit to Vipassana Dhurak Meditation Centre, the largest in Cambodia, which is also home to about 450 white-robed nuns, who we pass in silent meditation. Visiting an old nun in her cottage, we learn that her husband and six of her seven children were killed by the Khmer Rouge. She's been a nun here for 18 years and her daily practice of love and kindness, compassion and equanimity is revelatory.

We also fall under the spell of the laughing Mr Ry, a 76-year-old, sugar palm-tree farmer who demonstrates how he climbs soaring single-pole ladders in thongs to tap the juice, which his wife boils down to make palm sugar. We learn he was forced to dig irrigation canals by the Khmer Rouge but survived because of his exceptional palm-tree climbing prowess when other family members perished. Today, his grandkids are nearby using machetes to make kites from plastic bags and bamboo sticks and he's dressing us visitors as local villagers, with palm hats, pots, knives and Cambodia's ubiquitous krama scarves as head wraps, belts and backpacks. The multiple palm wine shots all around contribute to the general mirth.

The whole experience could have felt forced but, judging by the grins of Mr Ry and my fellow travellers, it was genuine and heartfelt. Just like the pure joy on the faces of every kid who waved as we passed through their world. That joy was infectious.

THE SHIP: CF Mekong by CroisiEurope's Toum Tiou II

THE SIZE: 38 metres long, 14 cabins, 28 passengers

GET ON BOARD: The eight-night Mekong Discovery cruise operates in both directions between Saigon and Siem Reap. Specials start as low as $1395 per person. Other offers include 50 per cent off for second person in a shared cabin and no single supplements.

GOOD TO KNOW: Rates include all meals, guided shore excursions, transfers between meeting point and ship, port fees and onboard Wi-Fi.

EXPLORE MORE: cfmekong.com

The writer was a guest of CF Mekong.

Pictures: Susan Gough Henly; supplied