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Published: January 31st 2017
Traffic in Ho Chi Minh City
The motorcycles move like waves in a river!What a wonderful day boating in the
Mekong Delta! To get there we drove for about an hour and a half.
My first impression about all the businesses being on the street wasn’t too far off; Thuy explained that the family business is on the ground floor and the family lives above. Great grandparents are given the most respect so they live on the second floor, since climbing stairs would be difficult, and the Buddhist shrine is there also. The one to three floors above are for all the other generations. This helps explain why most of the newer houses are tall but not very wide. The best of these have great gardens on about half of the top floor, with a canopy roof providing shade and protection. Thuy said that in some of the houses, elevators have been installed, and in these the shrine may be on the top floor, as I later did see.
We got off the bus to get on a private tourist boat that was comfortable, with wooden deck chairs lined up on both sides of the long, narrow vessel, under a sheltering roof. We met our local guide, Sáu, a young woman with a
charmingly determined air. (Her name means “six”.) As she spoke about the Delta, we motored out into the wide water where lots of other boats were plying their trade. In the distance we saw three multi-decked white ships that were cruise ships taking tourists to Cambodia; Thuy informed us that bookings had to be made a year in advance.
We came to the floating market. For easy identification, hoisted on a pole above the boat was a sample of the produce being sold, and most displayed sweet potatoes. Some boats functioned as gas stations or corner stores – at one of these Sáu bought fresh coconuts for us to drink. Another tourist boat came up for the same purpose, so I assume there is some degree of pre-arrangement. We continued motoring along to a village built on stilts. A lot of these houses looked worse for wear, subjected to the constant tidal action of the river. The government now manages the water flow enough to preclude floods.
We got off for a visit to another tourist industry – candy making. Sáu took us briskly past the souvenir stalls to two men sweating over a gigantic wok heated by
Cutting Popped Rice candy
Huge cleavers with good weight for cutting a large fire. The fuel was rice husks. In the wok was black sand being heated to 200F. When the temperature was reached, they added a couple of cups of rice. After about two minutes of constant mixing, the rice began to pop! They scooped the rice and sand into a series of two sieves, to separate the sand, which was put back in the wok. We tasted the rice, which tasted rather like popcorn, trying to avoid eating any of the husk that had stayed attached. At the next station of this demonstration, one man vigorously stirred boiling coconut milk in another huge wok. When ready, his assistant poured in some sugar and the puffed rice, and together they kept stirring the sticky sweet until the mixture was ready to scoop onto a two by three foot shallow wooden frame. Together they first used their hands to smooth out the candy into the frame and then big brass rolling pins. For the final step, they brought out two straight-edges and two enormous cleavers; with dispatch they cut the candy into serving-sized rectangles.
The next demo was coconut candy. In the enormous wok, a cook was boiling sugar. The
Snake Liquour
Not my cup of tea guide showed us a tool similar to a boot jack for quickly shredding mature coconut. I tried, one foot steadying the metal, bent over the grating edge. It was awkward but fairly easy, although I did it only for a few minutes. Even easier was the spindle-driven grater they produced after my efforts on the boot jack. The coconut was virtually dissolved in the sugar and coconut milk. After the candy thickened and was carefully ladled into a form that was a series of shallow channels. (Flavours: palm leaf, strawberry, chocolate) When it was cooler, other workers picked up the strips and deftly cut them into bite-sized pieces with large knives. Then others wrapped them one by one first in rice paper (edible) and then in light waxed paper. They offered us the off-cuts – lightly favoured and delicious!
On to the “rich wine”, which was distilled liquor. It came in two flavours: banana for women and snake for men’s “power”. Both were made by soaking the ingredients in the liquor. I tasted both: banana tastes like banana and was sharp; snake was smooth and very mildly flavoured. We were invited to take tea, sampling an assortment of their
Goddess of Mercy
A female avatar of the spirit of Buddha products, the better to tempt us as we were surrounded by the very well-stocked shop. I got some of the green palm candy.
Back on the Mekong Delta, we relaxed until the lunch stop. Just after we came off the boat, we walked past a pagoda built only two years ago and dominated by a huge statue outside. The Mother Goddess is a female representation of Buddha particular to Vietnamese Buddhism. Inside, the backdrop of the altar was painted beautiful sky blue, giving an open, airy, yet cool feel.
We walked along a wide cemented path, used by people and of course motorcycles. We crossed over a marvellous arched footbridge, paved with small white stones set in concrete. The supports and handrails were gracefully wrapped in thick rope. This brought us to a heritage home, dated 1838, set in a sparse garden of local plants and flowers. The interior woodwork was magnificent – deeply carved and polished, highlighted by gold. At the back was a large deck and patio where we lunched. Our spectacular second dish was a deep fried Elephant Ear fish, presented upright on the platter (supported by a simple rack). A server dipped rice paper
Rose Apples
They begged to be picked! into water, picked fish flesh off with her chopsticks, added basil and cucumber, and deftly constructed a spring-roll. She left us on our own to clumsily make additional rolls for ourselves.
Well filled, we drove a short way for a pleasant walk through an orchard of various fruit trees. The Rose Apples were like little pink Butternut squashes; Thuy cut one for us, and the taste was mild, a bit like an apple. Jack Fruit grew lavishly, surprising considering how large they grow. The chilli pepper bushes spread like an undergrowth. Most astonishing was coming across a fenced pond where frogs were being raised. Our walk ended with refreshments on a patio where we were entertained by musicians. Just like in many cafes outside the cities, hammocks were slung between the pillars. I tried one, with great hilarity all around, because I looked to be twice the size of the Vietnamese who usually relax there.
We strolled back to the bus for a short drive to another boat dock. This time we got on small local boats, low in the water, four of us to a boat, plus the woman who double-poled the boat in a criss-cross fashion.
Water Hyacinth
Local resource, easily out of control For an hour we skimmed slowly through treed channels that were like local roads for the inhabitants. The cool quiet charmed us. Towards the end we saw large cultivated floating islands of water hyacinth. Sáu, our guide, had showed us how every part is used: stalk is dried and used for weaving, new stalk is a vegetable, the young leaves are chopped (with rice added) for pig feed, the flowers are edible, and the roots are chopped for fertilizer. Out in the main channel we saw an astonishing number of laden gravel and sand boats. The river is mined for the sand, and at certain locations the mixture is made for concrete. Many of the boats had highly decorative painted hulls.
Another hour of driving brought us to the startlingly large city of
Can Tho (third largest in Vietnam). We drove by a large shopping mall and cinema, crossed the Mekong on a huge, graceful suspension bridge, and moved through wide teeming streets to the
Kim Tho Hotel, an elegant modern building. To get to dinner we hazarded a walk along the road amidst the motorcycles whizzing by.
My favourite dishes: soft stir-fried vegetables in garlic sauce (carrots and cabbage
Gravel boat
Painted like a goalie mask! mostly), and the shrimp with deeply flavoured mango slices
"> View video of Making Candy.
Isabel Gibson
non-member comment
Funnest day ever
Or so it appears, based on this post. Great shots! I wonder your back didn't hurt, working that boot jack. As for the bridge - very cool indeed. And the hammock - yes, you want the medium.