Mekong Delta Tour

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Our two day tour of the Mekong delta started in fairly uninspiring fashion. First of all we stopped at a fish farm (see what I mean). There are many people who live in floating houses on the Mekong delta, and underneath the houses they farm fish. That's about it.

Next stop wasn't far away at Cham minority village, home to a self-sufficient community of relocated Malaysians who survive by fishing (including during the three months of flooding a year when they live in their boats) and by selling the silk they weave.

One of the main selling points of the tour was a homestay with a family in the delta area. We took a bus to one of the other towns in the area, followed by a boat to the part of the river where the family lived. They were incredibly friendly and couldn't do enough for us when we arrived.

We ate a typical Vietnamese lunch )which didn't suggest that food would be one of the highlights of the stay) then, after an afternoon nap, went for a walk round the local rice fields accompanied by a lady from the middle of the three generations who lived there, along with her two daughters. This would have been really nice had it not started raining heavily after only 20 minutes or so. We took shelter for a while, but we soon realised that it wasn't going to let up any time soon so we carried on. Unfortunately, the rising water cut off certain parts of our route and so the remainder of our walk was taken up by trying a direction until it was too flooded, then turning back and trying another way. It was all good fun though, and the children loved running about in the rain.

We arrived back just in tume to clean ourselves up then sit down for dinner. Dinner consisted of DIY fresh spring rolls which were fantastic. A really friendly (and amazingly chatty) old guy who lives nearby joins the family when they have tourists over and exchanges his English skills for is evening's beer and food took a great deal of pleasure from demonstrating how to roll our spring rolls as well as a selection of his favourite combinations of what to put in them. No matter how much we piled in, there was always someone over your shoulder telling us to put a bit more of something else, or telling us to dip it in the fish-sauce more. It was all excellent.

After eating the old guy was more than happy to continue drinking with us as he told us stories about how he fought for Southern Vietnam in the war and what it was like (as well as how easy it is to kill people - but in a nice way). It was really interesting and a great way to spend an evening, and definitely made the trip worthwhile

After a breakfast of noodles at 6am the following day we left the family to continue our trip by boat. The morning was spent visiting two of the floating markets in the delta area. They were completely different to the Thai floating markets, and consisted of large boats selling fish, fruit and vegetables in bulk rather than small boats selling to individuals. It was interesting to see the locals at work, but even by 9am we were wilting in the heat (despite or Vietnamese style pointy hats which they encouraged us to wear) and we were glad to escape to the air-con bus.

The rest of the journey consisted of fairly tedious stops to get lunch, visit a market and see how incense-sticks are made (I will inform any interested parties should they ask) before arriving in Saigon at around 5pm.

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