Swimming in the Mekong River
Swimming in the Mekong River
Swimming in a canal or river was the most normal thing in the world in my younger years. We didn't always have the money to pay the entrance to an official swimming pool, so we often dived into one of the two channels near my hometown.
One channel was not wide and even I, who was not a great swimmer, could easily make it across. The other channel was wide with plenty of shipping. It was fun, but not harmless to swim to a deep-lying ship and then let yourself "sail along" for a few hundred meters. Also fun, but not for me, was jumping off a high railway bridge or even diving.
Rijkswaterstaat in the Netherlands issues a warning during the summer months that swimming in canals and rivers can entail risks. Despite an existing ban on swimming in shipping channels, near bridges, locks and harbours, people are injured and killed every year. Look at this link for a nice graphical overview of the risks: www.rijkswaterstaat.nl/zwemmen-in-open-water/
Swimming in the Mekong River
When I read it I remembered a question on a forum here in Thailand from someone who had recently moved to Mukdahan. He wanted to know if it was possible and wise to go swimming in the Mekong River for pleasure. The conclusion will not really surprise you, I think, because many comments advised against swimming in the Mekong River. I will name a few:
Response 1: What worries me the most is the amount of fertilizer and herbicide/pesticide in the water of the Mekong. There are some river fish farms about 30 kilometers upstream from my house and when there is a lot of running water in the river, I see large quantities of dead fish floating by.
My recommendation is to only swim at a low river level, but make sure you have good footwear to protect you from the large amounts of glass fragments that can be found on the bottom along the river.
Response 2: Definitely not recommended for a number of obvious reasons: dangerous currents, invisible debris floating on the water or just below the water surface, broken glass, fish hooks, parts of fishing nets and other debris.
Not to be forgotten are also the high levels of fecal coliform bacteria and parasites.
Response 3: When I worked in Mukdahan for a while, we went at low tide with a number of Thais to an island in the Mekong to swim. Big mistake. I have been seriously ill for 5 days with diarrhea and cramps. My body just couldn't stand the polluted bathing water of the Mekong.
Response 4: Looking at the number of houseboats along the river here in Nakhon Phanom, who dump all their waste water into the river, I wouldn't risk it. Although the river is wide and huge amounts of water flow past, I am not interested in swimming among turds and other filth
Response 5: The only thing that would worry me given the fertilizer and faecal waste are the microorganisms that other foods feed on. The Mekong is home to two well-known brain parasites, the pork tapeworm, Taenia solium, and the amoeba Naegleria fowleri. The former is responsible for the condition known as neurocysticercosis, the most common parasitic infection of the brain.
Finally
The story is about the Mekong River, but in fact the warning applies to all rivers and open water in Thailand. Then to the beach? Well, I hear and read enough about that, that the bathing water is not always clean and safe either. So I think it's best to only swim in the official swimming pools or in the pool at your hotel.
I don't swim much myself, I'm not a real enthusiast. My motto is; swimming is for fish and not for people!
About this blogger
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Bert Gringhuis (1945), born and raised in Almelo in the beautiful Twente. Later lived for many years in Amsterdam and Alkmaar, working in export for various companies. I first came to Thailand in 1980 and immediately fell in love with the country. Been back many times since then and moved to Thailand after my (early) retirement as a widower. I have been living there for 22 years now with my somewhat younger Thai lady Poopae.
My first experiences in Thailand as a kind of newsletter sent to family, friends and acquaintances, which later appeared under the name Gringo on Thailandblog. Many, many articles followed those first stories and that has grown into an almost daily hobby.
In the Netherlands still an avid footballer and football referee, but the years are starting to tell and in Thailand still avid, but the pool billiards is really of inferior quality, ha ha!
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Former navy man and then swim find something for the fish, haha! You can't get me – also an ex-marine – into those rivers and swimming in the sea isn't high on my wish list either. I swim in the north of Thailand in the beautiful and large bath of a hotel that allows non-guests to enter the bath for a fee. You have to cycle 11 km first, but it's worth it.
Apparently there are more former navy men among the readers of this blog, including myself.
I'm not a fan of swimming either, at the swimming test I had to take to even at all
to be allowed to join the navy, I just shortened the mandatory distance by keeping myself afloat “doggie style”. There has not been much improvement since then, only in very salty and clean water, for example in Aruba, I am sometimes tempted to go into the water. And preferably in a kind of net that is attached to a floating plastic pipe so that I can paddle while sitting. Swimming in the Mekong River does not seem fun to me anyway. When I read what kind of junk is in it, I don't even venture to the fish that is farmed here and is for sale everywhere in the Netherlands, such as tilapia and pangasius. Let alone that I would voluntarily want to swim in such a polluted river. I do stick to the bathtub at home every now and then….
As has been said before, life is not without risks and you will have to accept that to a certain extent, but you don't have to go looking for them either.
If someone really gets a kick out of swimming in natural water, and you don't do it completely unprepared, then someone has to weigh up those risks themselves.
You can also make a different assessment one day than the other. For example, I know someone who regularly drives several fast cars, and if he has something interesting with him, he usually invites me for a ride. I know that the meter will then go up to 250 km/h and that corners will be taken at speeds that are certainly risky.
Yet I never really turn down such an invitation. Only once did I say 'no', and that was when I had a ticket to Bangkok in my pocket for the next day. Then I suddenly found the risk irresponsible.
Very interesting article about considerations in life and in this case swimming in open water.
I believe this is good for boosting your immunity level. Maybe a temporary increase and more trips to the toilet, but then you also have more resistance.
Of course you shouldn't overdo it.
Swimming in open water is dangerous, just think of Weil's disease,
Which the doctor will certainly confirm.
At the time, my mother could sit at my sister's bed all night because
There was a serious infection o test approach behind the eye, fortunately she is not blind there
To become.
Weil's disease occurs in closed water, not in flowing water such as rivers.
Only back after a nice beach holiday on koh samui, koh tao and koh pagnan, I never go in swimming pools at hotels because I never trust them for the above reasons, we swim in the sea because this pool is bigger than a small swimming pool at hotels
Yet once tried to swim on koh pagnan in hotel swimming pool water swimming pool was very warm > 40 degrees and afterwards the bottom was not visible
Day later swollen eyes and day later ear infection happy last days of stay on koh pagnan at home with otolaryngologist middle ear infection 3 weeks a lot of pain and antibiotic cure recovering again
Moral of the story, hotel swimming pools are not always without danger either.
Cooler seawater seems less dangerous for bacterial infection. Check beforehand whether the swimming pool appears to be clean
Furthermore, we had a nice beach holiday
The Mekong is the largest open sewer in South East Asia!
I once did a boat trip between Laos and Thailand and saw nothing but excrement!
I'm not putting my big toe in that water yet!
On the banks of Laos, I saw people just throwing their garbage bags into the river! Sad !
You almost dissolve when you swim in it from all that junk that's in the water.
I also do not dare to swim in rivers and puddles in the interior of Thailand. Exceptions for me are waterfalls and a water rafting trip. That includes a bath. Oh and a geyser.
Well, I once had a cup of tea with a poor slob in Cambodia. When the tea was finished I asked him where the water came from. He pointed to the Mekong. Until well into the 19th century, people in Paris still drank the water from the Seine. If only it was not won too close to the banks. It was even considered very healthy water. Cloudy, but one just had to leave it for a while! Then a delicacy.
I disagree with you on point 4. It is normal that the houseboats discharge everything. And that you don't think this is a fresh idea is also normal. But what about the rivers in Europe? I have sailed on an inland vessel for many years. on all inland waterways. It is the most normal thing for all these ships to discharge their waste water. Although the more modern ships all have a waste tank, this is simply emptied outboard, due to a lack of installations. Only the passenger ships have the option.
If the water flows well, this is also no problem. Normal household waste cannot pollute the water so quickly. We have swum many times in the Rhine and its tributaries and have survived all of them. Discharging factory waste is many times more dangerous