Vietnam Long Xuyen to Vinh Long

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Long Xuyen to Can Tho- 13th Feb

This was a lovely days cycle. We set off on a slight detour to a stork sanctuary. We were struggling to see the sign off the main road and thankfully a few local men sat on their mopeds recognised the place name we wrote down and directed us. We set off to find it and one of them joined us to point out the turns once off the main road. It was a lovely little lane along an irrigation canal, with the paddy field on the other side. The stork nesting site was a smelly place but covered in white storks and also had a couple of dead trees covered in cormorants.

A crowd of small children soon found us when we arrived, with the usual greetings of 'hello; and 'how old are you?'. Three children followed us into the sanctuary (two said they were 10 years old but they looked much younger). We went up to the viewing platform where the little boy and girl proceeded to make me jewellery out of drinking straws! They folded them to look like flowers. I had ear rings, flowers for my hair accessorised with a feather and a leaf, and a ring. The hundreds of nesting storks didn't get my full attention!

We then took a ferry across the river for 10 cents each 😊 and discovered a lovely quiet lane to continue along the riverside. We broke for lunch when we discovered a chinese/Japanese style temple, we think it is the Confuscian style? We tucked into our baguettes and once again we attracted the local children, distracted away from their prayers. The little boy took delight on trying on my cycling helmet and George's sunglasses! After a short break we continued on our way.

We saw bundles of thick grass laid out to dry along the roadside, some was dyed red, green, yellow and purple. Shortly after we heard a 'clackety' sound which we discovered to be weaving looms. The ladies were making grass mats in little cottages factories.

Our second stop of the day was at a cafe where George spotted some young men planing xiangqi. Unfortunately, the opponent George faced was 'Vietnam Number 1' the men joked. He did proceeded to swiftly check-mate George in a couple of games.

Passing through Can Tho we sailed out the other side onto a very smart two lane highway. We followed a man called 'Hung' to his homestay by a tributary river. We saw many people out flying kites of the bridges and road side and learned that it is start of th windy season and a popular past time.

At the 'Homestay' it was very busy as a tour group arrived for an overnight stop. It wasn't exactly a homestay experience, more like a B&B service. We had a lovely reed bungalow with a verandah over the river. We enjoyed rice paper spring rolls (filled with salad, fish and rice noodles), tofu, bean & lentil hot spring rolls which wwere rather tasty. After we had some very sweet pineapple and 'happy water' (rice wine).

After dinner we chatted to Grant & Rhona from NZ but now living in London. Rhona works at Kings Uni in psychology and Grant previously worked as a sports physio but has changed career to IT. The evening had a random end when I asked Hung why we have seen local with dark brown circles all over their skin. It turns out it is from suction cups, used to treats colds and chills! His explanation was that in hot weather our skin pores open, then if you go suddenly cold e.g. jumping in the river the pores close and trap cold water insde your skin. The suction releases this water! Mr Hung then appeared with his family suction set for us to try out! A vacuum is created in the glass cup by lighting a flame inside then extinguishing it before applying it to the skin. Your skin then rises up and a giant love bite is created! Random!



Tuesday 14th February

Up at sun rise for a boat tour around the Delta.

We visited a floating market where wholesale trade takes place. People travel over 100km to bring their produce, mainly fruit and vegetables, to sell. They stay for 4-5 days, depending on the pace of trade, then head back. They tie the product they are selling to a bamboo pole to advertise! Some of the boats have two eyes painted on the front. These are to ward off any sea/river monsters. The smaller boats buy a selection of products to take back to their village market to sell. Other small boats were cafes and 'corner shops' servicing the house boats.

As we travelled along Mr Hung pointed out a butchered dog, hanging up. I'm very thankful I was too late looking up and didn't see it. Next stop was a rice noodle factory. Broken rice is soaked and compressed and then milled. Once a paste, it is cooked on a stretched cloth rather like a pancake. They fuel the stove with rice husks. The burnt husks are then sold to farmers for compost. The flat sheets of rice paste are then laid out in the sun to dry out. Work begins at 4am to maximise the sunlight for baking the sheets. Finally the sheets are passed through a machine that cuts it into rice noodles.

Pigs were kept on the site and fed on the watery rice by-product squeezed from the rice. The staff toilet feeds baby cat fish which are fattened up and taken to market. Nothing is wasted!

After death....

In Vietnam the elderly instruct their family where they would like to be buried, on the family land even in the house! A tomb is constructed for the body. If for any reason the family move from the land then the body is exhumed and the bones cleaned and then burnt. The ashes are either taken to the river or a pagoda. People in the town may buy a piece of land in the country to be buried or rest with extended family. Alternatively, you can pay to be buried for seven years, then you are exhumed or burnt. If you are too poor for this then you are simply burnt but this option is disliked.

We visited a nursery growing vegetables, we found the rice husk in use! The seedling pots were made from banana leaves, again very eco-friendly. We also went to some paddy fields. Here in the delta they can grow up to 3 crops a year (much more than the single crop in Cambodia). A tonne of rice can fetch about 6,000 dong for a farmer and a hectare can grow between 5 and 7 tonnes of rice. A lot of fertiliser is applied to accelerate the growth and pesticides to improve a more even yield or higher quality. Rice flowers open at night for pollination and the collection of dew. If there is rainfall overnight it can destroy the flower and ruin a crop. After the flower is pollinated the husk closes and a milk is secreted into the husk where it solidifies into a grain of rice, ready for harvest.

We also saw how the river water sediment is separated from the water using alum. One kilo of alum can clean 40,000 litres of water. If too much alum is used it can leave the water with a sour taste.

Finally, we stopped at a rice processing factory. It looked like a mad professors machinery! Covered in cob webs it was hard to imagine that the machinery could process a tonne of rice every hour. Mr Hung reckoned that 40%!o(MISSING)f a grain of rice is lost during processing for human food but thankfully good uses have been found for the by-products. From separating the rice from the husk (compost material), extracting the broken grains (used for rice noodles) and polishing the rice (bran is used for animal feed), nothing is wasted 😊

It was an informative and very busy morning finishing at 11am!!! Now time to chill on our verandah over-looking the murky river! It's that hot and sticky time of day :s



Can Tho to Vinh Long 15th Feb

This day begun with our early start being delayed by a puncture on my bicycle. Once fixed, we headed back to Can Tho to cross the river. It was a huge bridge, and being the only elevated thing was miles around it provided a fantastic view point. We saw a couple of pro cycle teams out on a training exercise, using the bridge to raise the intensity of training. After whizzing down the other side we were faced with 10km of very poorly patched up road. We rattled along seeing many fruit orchards along the way. Ladies sat outside their homes selling a pile of oranges, custard apples or mangosteen. Once back on smooth tarmac, we sailed along enjoying the paddy fields. The fields in this province had turned yellow and harvest had begun, using mini combine harvesters or by hand with sickles in the awkward spots. Often the fields had the obstruction of a couple of family members tombs. We crossed many bridges, from rickty wooden plank bridges to newer concrete ones, the road width altered from a single lane to two lanes.

One friendly local rode alongside me on his moped and we had a small conversation in English. He then kindly gave us a bag of Sapodillas. These were fruit that looked a bit like potatoes. Whilst being grateful for the gift, a second thought ran through my head...that's another 2kgs on the back of my bicycle! The fruit were tasty tho, very sweet and a bit Christmasy.

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Comments

[Sue/ Mum]

river
Read this part second. Lovely river pictures. You seem to have seen and done so much! Love, Mum Sue xxxxxx Off to bed now!