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Published: April 1st 2008
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First, let me ask your forgiveness for the ridiculously long blog entry for yesterday. I was having so much fun re-living the day in my head as I was writing that I got a bit carried away, but I trust that if you got bored somewhere in the middle, you gave up and went off to do something more productive.
It will be easy to be briefer today. Themes of the day included:
Heat and humidity
Delicious food
Fascinating views of life along the small canals of the Mekong Delta
Interesting conversation with Australians and New Zealanders
Many photographs
A continued sense of living in a Hollywood film
There, that about sums it up. If you’re in a hurry, that’s all you need to know. If you want more details, I’ll expand a little bit.
Heat & humidity I have no idea what the outside temperature has been during the day, but I can safely guess that it’s well into the 90’s. The days start out hazy in the morning, clear up somewhat as the days go on (though remaining somewhat overcast), and the sun sets about 6:00, leaving the evening much more bearable.
Morning on the sundeck
A lovely place to drink that first cup of coffee This morning when we got up just before 6:00 am, the entire boat was covered with dew - when I first looked outside I thought it had rained because the outside of our window was dripping with condensation. When we went to get coffee first thing this morning, we discovered that our camera lenses completely fogged up as soon as we left our air-conditioned cabin and hit the warm wet air outside.
Food Breakfast was a delicious buffet of all the usual breakfast buffet foods (yogurt, cereal, fruit, bread, coffee, eggs, bacon, sausage, etc.) There was an omelet station with a lovely man cooking eggs to order, and when I asked for an egg sunny-side-up, he took great care arranging it in the pan and gently holding the yolk in place so that it would cook perfectly centered.
Lunch was also a buffet that included more soup, salads of various types, garlic green beans, barbecued beef ribs (marked as beef “rips”), chicken stir-fry, and rice. Dessert included two kinds of fruit that I have yet to identify, lemon crème brulee, and something called “Panacotta Jelly with Soya Milk.” This last one was a gelatinous celery-colored substance with
Breakfast on board our ship
Completely Western-style, but quite delicious a layer of white on top, and while it didn’t taste bad, the texture was such that I think I’ll pass next time. (It would do me some good to pass up more things, but I continue to feel the need to try at least a
little of everything.)
Dinner was a more formal sit-down affair, starting with eggplant parmigiana (forgive my spelling; I’m sure it’s wrong but it’s less wrong than the way it was spelled on the menu!), gazpacho, then a choice of tempura vegetables, chicken with tamarind sauce, or red snapper. Much to our delight, dessert was a chocolate mousse cake - not bad at all.
Life along the Mekong Our excursion today took us to the nearby town of
Cai Be to see the floating market - vendors selling a variety of products from their boats - and then to visit a home-based family business making rice paper and another making puffed corn and rice. These were surprisingly fascinating and for anyone actually interested, I could explain both someday and show you lots of photos to document the process. But to summarize, what was interesting about both of these little businesses was seeing
various steps of the production being handled by different members of the family, the skill and fluid grace with which people went through each step, and the use of raw and recycled materials. The fires to cook the rice paper were fueled by rice hulls and longan berry husks (which would otherwise be waste products.) ……..
We saw how people gather rainwater (for drinking) in elaborate gutter systems and store it in huge earthenware jars. Apparently, until about 15 years ago, the river was still clean enough for local people to drink, but that’s no longer true. Now they drink rainwater and use the river for cooking, washing, and bathing. We also visited a recently restored traditional house of a wealthy family - sort of a small-scale Vietnamese-style Shelburne Museum - and visited the Notre Dame church in the center of town, hearing a bit about religious practices in Vietnam. We passed several tiny little tourist-oriented marketplaces throughout the morning as we walked, selling everything from T-shirts ($3), silk robes ($10), ceramics, lacquerware, paintings, and snacks of all kinds.
Etc. Then came more food, more interesting chats with other passengers, more photos. The afternoon was spent
in a combination of writing, reading, dozing, drinking cocktails and watching the world slide past as the boat continued up the river.
More waiting for the credits to roll…
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moldvictim
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Jessica, Please! don't apolgize about the length of your journal entry! Your diary is so beneficial, effective, and provides light, color, sound, movement, brings us into the scenes you are living brilliantly, in 3D. A few weeks ago, during our blizzard I was craving Eggplant Parmagian, and eventually convinced our local food emporium, 'Current Cuisine' to fix a tray of it; I bought 7 portions! to know that you were served it in Vietnam, is amazing synchronicity! Your descriptive commentary covers so many issues so well: Development, local economies, transportation forms, climate, foods. Tell us a little about the garments folks in various regions are wearing