In Mekong Delta

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Our eventful journey following the Mighty Mekong from the Golden Triangle through Laos and Cambodia down to South China Sea is culminating in the Mekong Delta in south Vietnam. Although, as our avid readers know, we have made a numerous deviations during our trip, sidetracking whenever we felt like it was worth the effort, we have always been drawn back to the Mekong, joining the flow of one of the world's great rivers. The source of Mekong resides high in the Tibetan plateau, from where it flows 4500km through China, snaking between Burma and Laos, through Laos, along the Laos–Thailand border, and through Cambodia and Vietnam until ultimately connecting with the South China Sea. Before reaching the sea, the river splits into a number of branches, which explains the Vietnamese name for the Mekong - Song Cuu Long (River of Nine Dragons).

As we briefly mentioneed in our last blog entry, one of our deviations from the Mekong path was Kampot, a sleepy city by the river with the same name. This Cambodian city is proclaimed to be the capital of durian, a controversial fruit with repulsive smell and very delicate taste, for which's honor the fine citizens of Kampot have built a gobsmacking 5m tall replica in the middle of their city. Another famous fruit in Kampot is Kampot pepper, due to a particular soil composition around Kampot, this pepper is distinctively aromatic and loved by the gourmands all over the world, which after an extensive emperical testing we can fully confirm. In Kampot we found an intoxicatingly relaxing atmosphere at Magic Sponge guesthouse, and we did not mind to stay an extra day when our bus operator kindly informed us that our trip to Vietnam was delayed by a day due to the bus apparently breaking down.

Crossing the border to Vietnam involves some bribery for those who do not have a vaccination certificate on them, mind you, 1 USD is enough to prove one is in adequately good health for 'Nam. Never underestimate the power of hard currency! Our first destination in Vietnam is Phu Quoc island, that once belonged to Cambodia and is still keeping its Cambodian name on some maps, especially on the Cambodian ones. The island has got a big tourist potential, and the government is investing in the industry, meaning a myriad of construction sites and a new airport on its way. In a few years the beauty of the island will be hidden under a hideous Phuket-esque hotelscape. Mark our words, you better start planning your trip now if you want to see Phu Quoc before the forces of development have destroyed the place beyond recognition. We chose to stay in a quiet eco-village in a northern part of the island. A technical term low-density hotel means that the guests feel as if they stayed in their own villas, so do we. This place with the magic sunset atmosphere, perfectly made cocktails, and delicious food has never left us, although after 3 days we regretfully had to check out and move to the famous Long Beach of Phu Qouc.

It's been almost two months since our last dive and another rendezvous with Poseidon is long overdue. We walk in a diving shop called Flipper. We are met by one of their diving instructors, he opens his mouth and without having to say a word, we can tell immediately from his accent he is a French! We book a diving excursion for the next day. Early in the following morning we are taken by their van to the south of the island where their vessel is docked. When we get off the van, we are savagely ambushed by the pungent stench of the fish sauce in making. There is no aroma akin to that of fermenting fish, let's just say it can cause an unforgettably overwhelming sensory experience. We cannot wait to get underwater!

Leaving Phu Quoc, we decide not to rush through the Delta, but instead to take four days to advance slowly from the Phu Quoc island to Saigon through the watery ways of Mekong Delta. With four days in our pocket we have enough time to fully absorb the vibes of the Delta and to appreciate its unique beauty. Despite the fact that we have repeatedly told ourselves we would never ever take an organized trip, but, never say never as the saying goes, we do take one to cross over numerous Mekong channels and branches. Our first overnight stop is Chau Doc, where we stay in a floating hotel. In our room, we have lifejackets next to a minibar and from our terrace we can jump into Mekong, which we skip though having no faith in the local sewage system.

The Mekong has often run red, for it has played host to some of the most brutal conflicts of the 20th century, from the first and the second Indochina Wars, both utterly pointless, to the apocalyptic slaughterhouse of Khmer Rouges, countless bodies have ended up floating in the river. On the other hand, the Mekong is the great sustainer of life, the abundant provider of food and the enricher of the soil allowing the rice farmers of the Mekong delta yield three harvests a year. We could see on one of our stops how efficient the rice culture in Viet Nam is, here the 100 % a rice grain finds its use. The outer hard shell or chaff is used as fuel, in noodle cooking ovens for example. The rice dust, when the rice is polished, is used to make food for fishfarms. The broken grains are used for making rice milk for noodles and the white whole grains are used in cooking and are exported. On daily basis a Vietnamese consumes one kilo of rice in rural areas and about half that in urban areas, putting Viet Nam on respectable fifth place among the global producers and consumers of rice.

One of the most interesting stops we have during our tour is at a small family run noodle factory. Noodle making turned out to be a repetitive process of drying and watering, where the rice is first soaked, then cleaned , then the resulting rice milk is shaped in crepes that are cooked for a minute and then sun dried for a few hours. After which the crepe is cut in thin stripes of 2mm to become noodles, that are to be boiled again to be served in a noodle soup. Kalle does some quick calculations and estimates that during a hard working day the family can produce about 500kg of noodles, making about 80USD profit, excluding the labour cost.

Another family business we visit is a coconut candy factory on one of the many islands by Can Tho. Here again we witness the efficiency in local resources usage put in practice. The candies are made from coconut and sugar cane juices mixed together. The coconut shells fuel the oven where the mixture becomes toffee, and instead of plastic a rice paper is used to wrap the candies! The work is literally manual, each candy passes at least four hands for shaping, cutting and wrapping. And the result is tasty, with an exception of the durian flavored ones, their smell is stronger than the taste...

The capital of the Mekong Delta, the town Can Tho was an enjoyable stop on our way. We did not seen many foreigners on the streets, and had to employ all our Vietnamese knowledge supported by a phrasebook and gestures to have a share of local specialities mentioned by wikitravel. The first one we manage to negotiate was a head massage. The Can Tho version of it involves hair pulling and a very hard scalp pressure, but it takes one's mind away. Local pastry was the best one we have had in Vietnam, and a tenderized beef steak made us like the town even more. To finish up the night we went to a rooftop bar of the funky looking yellow building of the Xoai (Mango) hotel, where we tasted a glass of local wine, enjoyed good music, and had an interesting chat with the owners while the the night streets were running with motorbike lights and sounds.

On our last day, we were the only ones to take off the bus to spend the evening in My Tho. We can say with 99% percent of certainty that we were the only foreigners in the town that night. Our hotel had a very soviet look and name - Trade Union's Hotel, with démodé but good quality furniture, uncle Ho portraits and hotel staff treating us as very special guests, almost fearfully. Here we dropped fortuitously by a local night club. We heard that the Asians had a high tolerance for noise, but we could not imagine that it had to be that high! The place was a cacophony of visual and audible noises, five big screens were all showing different programs ranging from old James Bond movie to Asian MTV and a loud pop music was being played by a professionally looking DJ. When he switched to the 'night' mode, Nastya had to run out of the place with her ears covered. To soothe our senses we went for a local speciality - Hu Tieu noodle soup - made with three different types of pork meat and some vegetables, it was truly delicious. Next day our organizers, which were actually very organized, picked us up for the last day in Mekong Delta before bringing us to Saigon, the city of 5'000'000 motorbikes.

Dropping acid on the Mekong Delta, smoking grass through a rifle barrel, flying on a helicopter with opera blasting out of loudspeakers, tracer-fire and paddy-field scenery, the smell of napalm in the morning." - Alex Garland, The Beach

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