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Published: June 11th 2007
“The Mekong Delta”….miles and miles of rice fields (or so we thought), in fact it’s only when you reach the “lower” delta that you get to see them. The tour that we were on…(yes I know we hate organised tours but it’s the cheapest and easiest way to do things) covers the “upper” and “mid” delta, so not much rice around - but when you live in India it’s not such a hardship to miss out on the white stuff!!
We packed up the backpacks and left them in storage at the hotel before embarking on our tour which was to last 2 days and 1 night. We were picked up by coach at a travel agents office in HCMC and drove for a couple of hours before reaching our first boat. There were about 35 people in the group, some were doing a one day tour, most a two day tour like us and a few of the others were staying on and travelling over the border into Cambodia. We’d decided by this stage that we didn’t have time to do Cambodia on this trip, we’d done Vietnam at our own pace and had seen everything that we’d
Slippery friend
We tried eating snake on our trip....tastes just like chicken!!!planned, we didn’t want to rush our visit to Cambodia so it’s on the back burner for next year!!
The Mekong Delta is a gorgeous place, it’s very densely populated (something that neither of us had realised), it has a good infrastructure and as we were expecting….it was wet!
Our first stop off on the tour was at a small island where we were serenaded by the local people whilst tasting some of the local fruits and tea. We then boarded small tin boats and were paddled through the interior of the island to the other side where our boat was waiting to take us on to our next stop off. The next island was much the same as the last one but it was famous for making coconut candy……very nice. We also got to drink more tea with honey made from the bees on the island and for anyone that wanted to there was the chance to hold a python - the python thing didn’t appeal to me (done it before and think it’s a bit cruel). Barry had a go and did his best Steve Irwin impression for a couple of minutes before the python
got fed up and started to wrap itself around his waist…he soon passed it on to the next victim.
So after candy, tea, honey and snakes it was time to get back to our boat, which was waiting to take us to the coach for a further 2 hours drive into the delta. As we pulled away from the island the heavens opened and despite the boat having a roof we got drenched. For some people this was the end of their tour - not much to write home about so far, hopefully tomorrow will be a bit more adventurous. After 2 hours on the coach we came to a massive ferry crossing point and were told that we’d have to get off the coach and walk to the bike and foot passenger ferry - meanwhile the coach would cross the river on the vehicle ferry. The rain was bouncing down, it was rush hour and the queue was massive. We eventually boarded the ferry and avoided being run down by the millions of motorbikes in the mad scramble to get on board. We sat upstairs to get a better view of the bikes and their drivers below who were
Travel buddies
Having a few drinks at the Homestay packed in like sardines in their multi coloured waterproof clothing…..if only we’d brought along our anoraks!!! The ferry crossing didn’t take too long and we piled off at the other side expecting the coach to be waiting for us…..Bad luck! it was still in the queue for the vehicle ferry, not to worry we could do with a drink anyway, so we found the nearest bar and had a nice cup of Vietnamese Coffee (something we’ve grown to love). Our chosen accommodation for the night was a hut on the rivers edge - we decided it’d be a bit more exciting than the other option of a hotel in town, funnily enough, of the 28 people that remained on the tour only 7 of us had chosen the huts. So we boarded another boat and headed off up river towards our home for the night. Besides us there was a couple from Spain, another English couple and a girl from Tokyo who was living and working in New Zealand. It was a nice mix of people and we looked forward to a lovely quiet night sat on our veranda on the banks of the Mekong River chatting and having the
odd drink.
The hut was lovely, (it made us feel a bit homesick for our Palolem beach hut in Goa) the hut didn’t have a toilet but it had a shower and mossie net so it was quite luxurious and the bed was really comfy. The family that owned the huts lived in a big house set further back from the river and next door to them lived some of their extended family. Our promise of a quiet relaxing evening was soon shattered by the booming sound coming from a stereo system close by - in fact the stereo system was situated in the house of the extended family who just happened to be holding an Engagement Party that night (GREAT!!!!) It would be over by 10pm (they promised) so we didn’t think much of it because everywhere we’d been so far in Vietnam the locals went to bed at 10.30pm.
Our evening meal was cooked by the lady of the house and our dining room was the family kitchen, before the food was served we were kept entertained by the husband who told us all about family life, religion and traditions in the Mekong Delta.
We also got an invite to the party next door, which by this time included a karaoke machine that was being tested at that very moment. Food was delicious and there was loads of it - elephants ear fish, rice, spring rolls, chicken, noodles, steamed veg, salad and fruit……it was all lovely!! We managed to dodge the party and took some beers back with us to the veranda where all seven of us sat chatting and watching the fire flies dancing around on the river before getting some much needed sleep (We’d all been up since 6.30am). Unfortunately the party went on way past 10.30pm, actually it was still going the next morning when we got our wake up call at 6.15 for breakfast.
Day 2 and the weather was bright and sunny with not a bit of cloud; hopefully yesterday’s rain had gone for good. After breakfast we got on the boat and went to the small jetty in town to pick up the rest of the tour party who had stayed overnight in the hotel along with the guide.
First on the agenda today was the floating market…….not like the tourist one in Bangkok, this was a
The teeniest hawker in the world
He could fit inside the chill box alongside his Pepsi real locals market, it was bustling and interesting - we took too many photo’s (as usual). Each boat sells a different product and you can tell what they sell easily - they have a long pole erected at the front of the boat with their goods tied to it - a bit like a shop window display without the window!!!
You can buy almost anything imaginable from the market; the boats mainly sell food items and stuff like shampoo and chewing gum, cigarettes and clothing. We even stopped at a petrol pump to re-fuel, the pump was housed on a clunky looking old boat moored in the middle of the market……not sure it’d pass health and safety laws back home!! For your non-essentials like hardware, plants and coffins! you go to the stilted shops erected on the waters edge, they looked like one puff of wind would knock them over and the stuff they had packed in there was amazing.
After the madness of the market we meandered slowly through the small tributaries of the river and got a glimpse of local life. The river plays an important part in the life of everyone here, people were bathing in
the river, washing clothes, preparing vegetables, we saw kids playing in the river and we even saw one guy bathing his pet dog!! Some of the stilt houses on the waters edge are nothing more than ramshackle huts…. tiny, flimsy looking things, but amazingly they nearly all had a boat tied up outside…..what’s the use of a car with so much water around!! Eventually we came to our next stop off - the rice noodle factory, actually it wasn’t a factory just someone’s small holding with a few buildings dotted around and a pig sty that was home to the biggest pig we’ve ever clapped eyes on. To make the noodles they first grind the rice and mix with water to form a batter like substance; next it’s ladled onto a flat steaming piece of concrete, covered with a lid for a few seconds before being scooped up on a wicker implement by one of the workers. Finally the steamed product is placed on a wicker tray and left to dry in the sun, then its cut into strips and that’s your rice noodle all ready to eat. That’s exactly what we had for lunch at a hotel back on
Rice Noodles drying in the sun
They dry out in the sun then get cut into strips before being packaged....all hygienec off course!!! dry land before venturing back to HCMC. We also tried snake which was quite tasty apart from the bone - I don’t suppose you get much bone in snake but I managed to find a small piece!!
It was nice to get back to HCMC for a few days, Chan had kept our original room at the hotel as promised so we re-claimed the bags and unpacked a bit of stuff to wear for our last couple of days before flying back to Bangkok. The last few days were spent shopping for souvenirs……we could have brought loads of nice things home but unfortunately didn’t have the room. We also did a cyclo tour of parts of HCMC - Mr Kim was one of the drivers and along with his friend they took us on a breathtaking ride around points of interest while dodging the crazy traffic. Mr Kim told me that he’d been a police officer before the war but like many Vietnamese men he’d been sent to a re-education camp by the communists and afterwards wasn’t allowed to go back to his police officers position. He became a cyclo driver in order to survive, his story is a
common one amongst the cyclo drivers, most of them were lawyers or teachers before the re-education camps, the cyclo drivers in HCMC mostly live on the streets - it’s a hard life!! Unlike the cyclo’s in Hanoi only one person can be seated comfortably in each vehicle so we had great fun racing each other down the busy streets of china town where we witnessed daily life from our seats. The cyclo’s are weird looking contraptions - the seat is mounted high up on massive springs and the brake is operated by pulling a long lever situated behind the uncomfortable looking drivers seat. The carriage - or passenger seat, is quite high up off the ground too and for tall westerners like us it’s a common sight to have legs dangling over the edge of the front foot rail………..I felt like Brian Potter with a chauffeur!!!
Our last night in Vietnam was spent enjoying our final serving of Pho Bo (Beef Noodle Soup) followed by a bit of a bar crawl and a “goodbye” visit to the Bia Hoi bar near the hotel where we drank a couple of glasses of the “worlds cheapest beer”.
Ben Thanh Market - Saigon
She sells coffe and we reckon she drinks far too much off it....she was hyper!!!
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jonnyred
non-member comment
Cokey Cola!
Hey you two, what a brilliant end to your little 'Sojourn' (I did French you know!) Have now given up my rice noodle diet! If I was fifty years younger I would be that boy selling Coke, all the celebs buy it , Mick Jagger and Keith Richards et al! I would be mega rich quick! See you soon!!!!