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Published: August 6th 2008
Usually the place i am writing about is able to be found in a pull down menu that travelblog.org provide, however on this occasion 'The Mekong River Delta' is as far as i could list, as Ben Tre is not an option due to its remoteness. i was lead here purely by fate for the fact that my passport was sent off for the purpose of extending my Vietnemese visa and the two Brazilians i had met informed me that no where in My Tho (my original destination) would let me stay without providing a valid passport, however i could catch a ferry for free across the way to a place called Ben Tre. this proved to be the case after an eager moto driver rang around when i got of the bus in My Tho and ate at a small road soad cafe (where the woman tried to seriously overcharge me for the food as i didnt yet know how to ask 'how much' in advance), who told me it wasnt possible unless i wanted to pay $25 a night. i haggled with the woman, still paying over the odds and instead jumped on the back of a motorbike and
headed for the ferry doc to cross over to Ben Tre. on the ferry i recieved some strange looks from the locals, that i later came to realise were more than likely looks of "what is he doing going to Ben tre?"
i disembarked and saw the name of a guesthouse that had been recomended by the Brazilians and walked down a long unlit village street the width of an alleyway, noticing that everyone had their doors and windows wide open so as u could see right in. the majority of the residents were simply sitting on their floors watching TV but it was still interesting to see the openness of this little community. i found the guesthouse 'Thao Nhi' and checked in, and made use of the free internet until the early hours. the next morning the friendly owner 'Phat' told me about a boat trip he does, but which would cost $25 as it was only me. unsure if the trip was worth this expense i borrowed a bike (also for free) and took a leisurely cycle down the main street and said i would let him know b4 1pm as the trip would start at 2pm. after
cycling for around 20 mins down the same road, that had the same shacks, that seemed to never end, i decided to turn back and see if they had a map, which they did, and i realised i was 11K from Ben Tre town itself. after enquiring about a motorbike, which i was told costed $10 a day, i decided to hop back on my bike and brave the bike ride in the heat of the day. after an arduous hour long cycle i made it to the river at the foot of town and went to what looked like a boat station to see if it was cheaper direct, instaed i was handed a leaflet and pointed in the direction of a tour agency. so off i went again 3K back in the direction i had just came, soon becoming lost and having to ask locals who unlike most previous places spoke absolutely no English, but i managed to get 3K, and a finger pointed in another direction. being as it was an extremely quaint little town with perfectly kept hedges and cloud trees in the central reservations and both children and adults who didnt tire in waving and
calling out "hello", the only word that anyone seemed to know, i was more than content to keep cycling and seemingly impressing the locals with my no hands navigation. after 5 minutes more i had a young girl on a moped driving next to me asking if i was English and we both pulled over to atempt to communicate. all i could gather was that she had an English test and wanted my help and i agreed providing she showed me where this tour agency was, so i held on to the back of her bike with one hand amd my hanlebars with the other and off we went. i soon realised we seemed to be heading back to the place i had recieved the leaflet, so when she asked if i liked coffee i agreed, and we stopped in a coffee shop next to the river. she was able to understand a lot more when i wrote things down as it turned out she was learning English from Vietnemese teachers who didnt pronnounce their words properly, we spoke for an hour or 2 and bumped into a guy from New Zealand who couldnt believe his eyes when he saw
me, stating that i was the only other white person he had seen in the 2 weeks he had been there (he was building a house with his Vietnemese wife that had just had a baby) and told me to enquire at the big hotel about where this agency was. i found that they also did boat trips, took a leaflet and headed to the other agency to find that they were by now, closed. we headed back to the coffee shop to get my bike that i had left unattended after being told by the New Zealander that u could leave your wallet on the seat of your motorbike in this town and it wouldnt move. Phuong (the Vietnemese girl) had said to me that if i would like she would take me to her granparents house the next day, as they lived in a small village and had a huge garden with various fruits that i might enjoy, so i agreed to meet her at 10am at her school. i sat with the New Zealander and the owner of the rather trendy (for this small town) coffee shop learnt some Vietnemese, then headed back for the 11K journey
in the dark, luckilly the roads were mostly well lit.
the next day i set my alarm and with my knees aching from yesterdays excessive cycling i paid a quid to be dropped into the town and met Phuong at her school (dont get the wrong idea she is 25), met a few of her friends and cought the most packed bus ive ever seen to the village. Phuong seemed slightly embarrassed about the state of her towns buses and tried to not get on, but we were practically dragged on by the jovial conductor, where i was greeted by a bus full of inquisitive smiles. as we got to the village the conductor started hanging out of the open bus door and shouted something, followed by hysterical laughter from both him and half the bus. Phuong tried to explain but all i got was "foreigner", it seemed he was announcing to the village the fact he had a white person on the bus, i found the whole situation hillariously magic. we got to our stop and her two friends Bao and Ngyung drove me, her and her other friend one (this is not how u spell her name i
know, but its how it sounds) down a thin little path surrounded by fruit trees to her grandparents house. i was greeted by a very kindfaced old couple and their dogs and cats before being lead to the back garden to see the chickens and feed the fish. Bao then climbed a tree and picked a load of cocnuts while i was being loaded up with various other fruits that i had never seen before. we went back inside and was handed a fresh coconut with a straw in it by her granddad that i quickly slurped down before heading off to the 'big garden' lead by his wife (76 years old weilding a machete). there were countless bananna and coconut trees amongst many others and we stopped at the end of a dirt path where a woman was selling the coconuts that had been harvested. Phuong's uncle counted out a huge pile of them and started bagging them up while we ate some jackfruit and i tried on her grandma's hat 😊 next it was off to a large rice field they own, passed the ducklings waddling around freely and i tried some more fruit that again i had
never seen before. then it was back to the house for lunch (theres a nack to eating rice with chopsticks) followed by jasmine tea and bananna candy. i said my goodbyes and offered my most sincere gratitude and we all headed back to town for a beer( the hospitality that i, a stranger, was shown in their house, was the kind that u only expect to read in a fictional story). so a couple of beers later (that i wasnt allowed to pay for) i headed for the bus stop and we arranged to meet up at 7pm for dinner, when a guy pulled up on his motorbike, speaking pretty good English and asked if i needed help, assuming that Phuong and Bao were just randoms trying to help. nevertheless it turned out that he was heading for the bus station and told me to jump on and ended up giving me a lift all the way to my guesthouse. he found my ipod facinating and asked if he should go now, but in return for his kindness, thinking that offering him money for gasoline might insult him, i offered him to come to dinner with us, Bao soon arrived
and we all went for dinner together. we cooked our own food in a small road side cafe with a tabletop stove (see pic) and drank rice wine (moonshine) and Hoang (the guy i offered to dinner) gave me a lift back. on the way back he started asking me in not so many words about my sexual prefrences, it seemed that as i had suspected he was gay, and tried to make excuses to stay at mine, i explained that i wasnt on that and decided it was only fair to give him some money as he had told me he was currently unepmloyed and had now given me a lift 3 times. we got back to mine, i let him use the toilet and i did like wise (to much rice wine and green tea), gave him some money and spoke for a bit before he got the hint he should go. it had been one of the most enjoyable days of my whole trip, i went on the net for a bit and came back to my room, went to put on some music, but where was my ipod? suddenly it clicked into place. him asking me
how much it cost, not having any money, wanting to stay...... he did seem gay tho? the whole time he had been flirting with the idea of stealing my shit and when i went for a wee he must have seized the oppurtunity and knabbed it! i was furious, i'd even given him a pound coin as a souvenir as he liked the look of english money and now i would never see my ipod again. the 200 odd quid it would cost to replace was not the issue, but the next 9 months i would have to spend without music, there was nothing else i could do but accept my loss, smoke something to calm down and sleep. my only glimmer of hope was the fact that he had recieved a call from Bao whilst in my room, as i had his helmet, so i knew that Bao had his no, but i also knew that before that evening they were both strangers. i managed to sleep at around 2 or 3am and woke up at 6.30 with a strange urge to get up and speak to the guesthouse owner and a sense that somehow i would get it
back....... i explained the situation and we went to the only place i knew, Phuong's house. she also had exchanged numbers with Hoang the previous night and Phat (the guesthouse owner) called him, spoke and passed the phone to me. i was on fire, especially when he tried to play the i dont understand card when we had spoken unhindered the previous night. i simply said understand this " bring ipod now and its ok or i will spend the day finding you and when i do you will be in hospital!" there was a silence and he asked to speak to Phat, who then told me he was coming now. we waited and waited while Phuong tried to calm me down but Phat had to go as he had a tour booked, Phuong made me breakfast and still nothing. Bao arrived and took me back to my guesthouse to speak with them about going to the police and they asked if i had a picture of him. i had decided to take a picture of the tabletop stove the previous night and Hoang was sitting opposite me, i ran and grabbed my camera and there he was. Dai (who
worked for Phat) took me to print the picture and sent Hoang a meassage (as he wasnt answering his phone!) saying we had his pic and would go to the police if he didint return the ipod by 12 the next morning. by this point i was knackered and decided to chill in a hammock in the orchard garden for a while to sleep with an underlying sense that good news was on its way. when i woke up due to the monsoon Phats wife came over and said that a message had come through on Dai's phone that Phuong has my ipod 😊 Dai gave me a knock a little while later and told me that Bao and Phuong were on their way to see me. they arrived shortly after along with Ngyung, with my ipod and we drank some tea and talked, exchanged emails and numbers and Phuong, who kept apologising despite the fact she had no idea, asked if i wanted to stay with her for a week or so. she was very sweet but i have so much to see and so little time that i declined, with the offer of a place to stay should
i ever return. what a rollercoaster! they say that all is well that ends well and Hoang had even apparantly told Dai he wanted to aplogise to me, but it shows that even in the most remote and beautiful corners of the earth people are still people, regardless of colour or wealth, there are both yin and yang that exist everywhere and in everyone and we must never assume otherwise. this is what i have come to learn so far, that culture and location create nothing more than superficial differences that provoke the facade of mass division, the reality is that there are only individuals, with freedom of choice, with needs and wants no different to that of anyone else, but i digress, enough with the philosophy 😊
that night i decided to treat myself to the Mekong Elephant Ear fish after my offer to buy them all dinner to say thanks was declined as they wanted to get home before the monsoon returned. so one of Phats staff grabbed a net and went over to the huge pond they have in the garden and spent the next 15 minutes catching my dinner, dai killed it with 3 blows to
the head with a stick ans one of Phats daughters spent the next 20 minutes at my side scaling the fish and wrapping it into little rice paper parcels ready for dipping. it was just what i needed after the day i'd had and was followed up by various fresh fruits from the orchard...... Blessed
i am now in Can Tho soon to be headed for Chau Doc before i head back to Saigon and then...........?
so until my next post, MUCH LOVE and dont be strangers to my inbox or comments box. spk soon
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jon d
non-member comment
Thats more like it mate! Saving lives, getting involved in james bond like situations (black jack), philosophising on culture and life, and truly mingling with the locals- i have had a very good read!