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Published: February 17th 2007
We signed up for a Mekong Delta Tour with the promise of a small group (less than 8 people) and stops at non-touristy places. And, to my surprise, the tour company kept their promise and over our three days we thoroughly enjoyed Vietnam off the beaten track.
Bikerides and Fireflies
On our first day we woke early to meet our guide at 5:30am at the tour office. Our guide, Jarrod and I headed off on foot to the local public bus stop to head south to the delta. With french roll sandwiches for breakfast in hand we boarded the bus by 6:30am and arrived in Tien Giang, a river town, about an hour later. From there we headed across the river and down canals in a private boat and arrived at a small house where we had snacks of local fruit (lychee, mini banana, jackfruit, pineapple, and sweethearts) while we enjoyed a band of three playing and singing traditional Vietnamese music.
We then abandoned the larger motor boat and the three of us loaded into a dugout boat expertly rowed by two local women, one in front and one in the rear down small canals lined by palm fronds
Biking the pathways
Lady on her way homeemerging from the muddy banks. In the late morning we went for a bike ride through villages and rice paddies with no other tourists in sight. It was a great time riding along raised dirt pathways and over skinny footbridges to cross waterways. We briefly stopped by a rice husking factory, and knew we were off the beaten track when there wasn’t a showroom of overpriced trinkets at the end of the tour!
By lunch we were ready for a break after so many activities and relaxed in the shade while we enjoyed some expensive ‘make your own’ fish spring rolls. Take a leaf of rice paper, load on some fried fish, rice noodles, cucumber, spring onion, basil, mint, lettuce and roll it all together and Voila! Yummy lunch! We lazed around for a while after lunch and it seems that the waiters forgot to get us our bill for lunch. When we asked to pay and showed money, no one really took up our offer and we were simply shuttled back to the boat for our next stop. In the end we didn’t end up paying for lunch and saved ourselves 90,000 dong ($6US)
From there we
moved 200m downstream to arrive at a candy making factory where a fresh, hot batch of coconut candy was ready for tasting. Melt in your mouth coconut candy is really one of the best sweets we’ve had in a while, so after saving money on lunch we splurged on a bag of coconut candy and banana candy, even though they wouldn’t give us a discount.
We also had a taste of honey wine, similar to rocket fuel, and honey tea, which exceeded my expectations. Jarrod decided to have a refill of honey tea and proceeded to add honey, black tea and freshly squeezed kumquat juice. Kumquat juice squirted erratically and ended up in his eye. As I laughed at his pain our guide went in search of water to flush his eyes with and returned moments later with a bottle of water to rinse out the stinging juice. A few tears were shed, but Jarrod survived.
The day wasn’t quite over and from this point on we teamed up with two elderly English couples who were doing the same tour, but had paid extra to have a mini bus rather than ride local transport. We hitched a ride
with them on their air-con mini bus to the next village where we were to have dinner at a local families home. Dinner was excellent: hot pot seafood soup with fresh greens and pineapple. Whole shrimps, shell and all, were cooked in the soup and the family looked at us a bit funny when we skinned the crispy shells off before popping them in our mouth. It seems that they just down the entire thing!
At nightfall we started out on an expedition to find fireflies. From a small dugout boat with rickety seats we paddled down canals lined with little shrubs where fireflies flickered in the night. Our guide had a special firefly net which consisted of a cloth bag attached to a bamboo pole and after some effort scooped fireflies off the leaves and into our hands. With stars sparking above, flashing bugs lighting up our fingers and frogs croaking nearby it was a night to remember.
Rice Paper Globs and Naps in a Hammock
The following morning we were up early again to visit the local floating market just up river. A cluster of 30 boats floated just off shore each with a long bamboo
Local Floating Market
Fruits and veggies displayed high on bamboo poles pole reaching skywards displaying samples of their goods for sale. Pineapples, squash and fish hung like flags flapping in the breeze. Some boats had only one item for sale lifted high on their bamboo pole while others were like the Wal-Mart of the floating market with whole vegetable gardens for sale. Wal-Mart’s poles dangled carrots, morning glory, cauliflower, onions, lettuce, potatoes, beans and much more. Cruising through on smaller boats were breakfast venders selling hot coffee, soups and rice. We opted for “special” rice which consisted of mushy white rice, shredded coconut and at least five tablespoons of sugar wrapped in rice paper. Nothing like a sugar rush to get moving in the morning!
After breakfast we made a quick stop at a brick factory and the local pagoda and then on to a local home where we had a go at making rice paper. After watching the mother of the house spread the white mixture, peel it off and roll it out to dry it looked simple enough. Yet, she must have years and years of experience because it was much, much more difficult than it appears. Jarrod had a decent go of it, but mine turned out
Rice Paper Circles
My rice paper making attempt turned out looking almost exactly opposite as these fine examples the worst by far. Instead of a nice thin circle, my rice paper ended up as a thick tubular glob that couldn’t be used for much more than chicken feed. But, in my defense, I’ve never been good in the kitchen!
We headed back to our home stay family for the remainder of the day where we relaxed in hammocks eating crispy rice seasoned with fish sauce and chilies (tastier than it sounds!) until we were commissioned to help make Vietnamese spring rolls for lunch. After about 40 spring rolls we were out of ingredients and minutes later lunch was ready. Lunch went like this: Take a big piece of rice paper. Add cucumber strips, spring onion, basil, lettuce, rice noodles and a little spring roll we made earlier and encase it all in the big rice paper. Dip in peanut sauce. Chow Down. After stuffing our faces we again retired to the hammocks for an afternoon nap in the shade. In the late afternoon we took a stroll around their home and visited the vegetable gardens and fields around, digging up little potatoes for snacks later. Our time was up at the home stay. To get to our
next destination we crossed the river on a passenger ferry to arrive at our mini bus, took two more ferries drove a while and ended up in the town of Can Tao where we spent the night at a basic hotel.
Bamboo Chopsticks and Sore Bottoms
Up early again in Can Tao to visit one of the Cai Rang floating markets. It was much like the local floating market we saw the day before, just on a much larger scale. Sample goods tied on long bamboo poles. Many of the venders lived on their boats and we passed by as they were brushing their teeth and hanging laundry out to dry. We were at the market early, by the time we were leaving bigger tourist boats were arriving with 15-20 people aboard armed with flashing cameras. From the main water way we headed down smaller canals and watched rural life pass by.
Over an hour later we docked the boat and headed inland to visit a family that made chopsticks and rice wine for a living. Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Dad and three kids all lived together. They spoke very little english but were very generous offering us rice
wine, tea and fruit. Their home consisted of three bare rooms: a living room, kitchen and room for fermenting the rice wine. Their toilet was out side with two planks hovering three feet over the water and a skirt of bamboo fronds knee high to hide your bottom. Arms length away was a stick holding a roll of pink toilet paper and a basket for paper disposal. We boarded back onto the boat and cruised around for a while… a bit too long really… our bums were numb from sitting on wooden benches for nearly six hours!
For lunch we shared a meal of soup, steamed morning glory and chicken with our guide and the two old English couples. One of the English wives got quite snitty with us over lunch for no apparent reason so for the ride back to HCMC Jarrod and I sat in the back of the mini bus listening to the iPod trying to be invisible.
All in all it was an enjoyable experience. We successfully avoided other tourists and visited places that didn’t try and sell us some useless souvenirs which was well worth the extra cost of the tour. Only next
time I would take local transport the entire way rather than a mini bus driver. Maybe it was just our incompetent driver, but he drove sooo painfully slow scooters were passing us on the highway and he constantly pumped the gas peddle, unable to hold one consistent speed. After a while, lurching forward and back gets more than a little annoying!
Next Stop: Mui Ne aka Beachland!
Travelers Tips:
We’d recommend our tour company: Innoviet
Address 146 Bui Vien St, Pham Ngu Loa Ward, District 1 HCMC
www.innoviet.com
Cost: $60US per person for the three days
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Innoviet
non-member comment
Thanks so much for your recommendation
hallo Jarrod and Carol, very nice to see your pics, I wonder where are u now, all the members in Innoviet very happy to see your pics. They are so beautiful. And about the add, we are in 158 Bui Vien, please correct it. Thank you. :)