Good Morning Vietnam!!

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Absolutely Beautiful!

Another amazing first impression of a new country. We bussed back to Phnom Penh to catch a boat into Vietnam. The region where we are starting our time here is called the Mekong Delta. It is located West of Saigon in the South of the country. It is where most of the rice in Vietnam is produced because of flat and fertile land. Vietnam is one of the worlds largest prodicers of rice. The scenery was green hills along the Mekong which quickly turned into flat rice fields lined with fishermen and floating villages. Vietnam is a busy, busy place, to put it midly!

Off the boat in Chau Doc we were confronted with a packed waterfront. So many Vietnamese lined up putting bikes, motos, groceries, and kids onto and off of boats. Meanwhile 20 or so foreigners are trying to move the opposite way...needless to say we were taked aback by all the commotion but we made it to the street alive. No guarantees we'd stay that way though if we didn;t watch our footing. Vietnam has relatively good roads, unlike some places in Laos or Cambodia, it is the driving that causes some foreigners (like myself) to clutch their tummies on the busses. Lanes dont matter, size does. If you are small, get out of the way or get hit. We've learned to cross the steet alright, but I suspect our skills will be put to the test in Ho Chi Mihn City (Saigon)!

In Chau Doc we stayed only 24-hours but enough time to wander the park, the streets and explore the river by boat. We went on a small river tour, guided by a charming Vietnamese woman who could not speak a word of english but whose sign language and pointing was very good. She took us around the river in her small boat and showed us the house of the people who live on the water. The houses differ in size and colour (usually bright blues and greens) and quality but one common feature is the television attenae that sticks out of each and every roof! Even on their boats these people have tv's, vc's, dvd players and sometimes even a computer! The houses float on boats or empty steel drums and nets line the perimiter under most of them for fish farming.

We stopped at one fish farm, a cluster of 6 houses in a row. She showe us around: the fish grinder, the big balls of fish mixed with rice shells, the smaller pellets to feed the fish, and the powder to send away to sell for fish sauce. Did you know that the average Vietnamese copnsumes 11 litres of fish sauce per year?! She fed the fish and there were big and small under the house all scrounging for food; survival of the fitest for sure!

Our next stop in the Mekong Delta is Can Tho where we are now. We realized on the bus ride here that we had left our passports at the guesthouse in Chau Doc! Woops! It all worked out all right though. We contunied onto Can Tho anyway and they sent our passports on the first bus today! Whew! The gueshouses all ask for and keep passports upon check-in. The government is strict on keeping tabs on travellers in the country and police routinely stop by gueshouses to ask to see passports of guests. Luckily we came prepared and had our photocopies ready. We also made additional photocopies to give to guesthouses in the future so we can always have the real thing "on our person"! Lesson learnt, but it was humerous for us since we knew they were safe!

The fun didn't stop there though...we got up this morning (early at 6am) for a day on the river to explore the floating markets. We wanted to drop our laundry off with the gueshouse but we couldn't find him. The man who was leading us to our boat sais "OK" so we followed him. He took us to the boat....hmmmmmmmmmmm. Our laundry came along for the ride!! Made a good pillow though! and we were able to drop it off this afternoon when we got back! Oh the misadventures!

The floating markets were busy! What other way to describe Vietnam!? We cruised through two of them, both bustling with vendors. In order to know what each boat sells, as they often sell only one fruit or vegetable, is to look up. There is a bamboo pole sticking off the bow of each boat with the product tied near the top so everyone can see. We treated ourselves to a watermelon- it was so juicy and tasty! Some vendors were quite aggressive when we found ourselves in the middle of many boats. They would bump into our boat and get their products out asking if we wanted to buy. Tough to say no but I don't so much have a need for a pumpkin or 3 heads of lettuce- I just don't!

At one point we stopped at an animal sanctuary. Probably not a very apt name considering the monkeys, crocs, shaved porcupines that looked like rats, and bats were either caged in or tied down, sad really. We were not so impressed, more scared of the crocs laying with their mouth open- despite their being caged. Our visit ther was short but we did take the time to have anice refreshing lemon juice. yum!

A good couple of days, a great intro to Vietnam, we are really looking forward to our 4 weeks here! More to come soon...

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