On the Mekong Delta

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Mekong Delta

It's something out of the realms of the imagination, familiar, eerily, from tv. Rice paddies, water buffalo, churning green rivers, and silent streams, lush streams, green coconut stalks spurting from the water. Life continued beyond the screen of greenery, a natural wall to the homes backing onto the water, all that was missing for us was the alligator launching itself after us, after the delectable taste of tourists.
It seems to be tourists now that funds life around the shallower delta streams...boatloads churning through the Mekong in rippling waves, their pale skin and paltry muscles making liars of the cone hats on their heads...symbols of the strong arms that paddle the boat, of the fingers that till the plow, that pull the country into a bright future!
The Mekong is what makes the country proud of its origins and of its place in the world and it is worth the dilapidated boat to the far side, the diseased dance of mosquitoes, the honeyfarm, the candy farm, the fruit plantation, the bonsai garden, for a hint of the muddy brown vein.

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Photos

Water Buffallo
Water Buffallo taking it easy in the Mekong Delta

Boats on the Mekong Delta
Boats cruising up the smaller branches of the Mekong Delta, around Phoenix Island, Dragon Island, Turtle Island and Unicorn Island.