Blogs from Mekong River Delta, Vietnam, Asia - page 8

The morning started off early with a boat ride to the floating markets on the Mekong River. These are not the tourist markets of Thailand, but the real ones the farmers, middlemen and traders use. It took about 30 min to get there from our hotel, but once we arrived there was a plethora local men and women of all ages, shapes and sizes trading and selling their produce, meat and fish. The small row boats were the farmers bringing their goods to market to see to the middle men, in larger boats. The middle boats would put their product on a pole in the air to sell to the traders. So there were poles with sweet potatoes, gourds, roots, and other fruits and vegetables. There was even one boat full of butchered meat with NO ... read more

Knowing that I could do a days tour back to another area of the Mekong Delta that's what I decided I would do today. So, with an early start of half 7 me and about 30 other tourists were loaded into a coach and on our way. It was about a 2hr drive to Ben Tre so we stopped off on the way to visit a wood/lacquer workshop and to grab a drink. The workshop is run by people with disabilities which have been caused by the nerve agents the Americans spread over the country during the war in the 70's. The nerve agents were also passed on from mothers to babies still affecting generations today. Watching these intricate pieces of art being made from a simple piece of wood through to the finished article was ... read more

So getting up at 04.45! I headed down to the river for 05.30 to meet the Argentinian couple from yesterday and a lad from Japan who would also be joining us for the days tour. We set of prompt in the direction of a floating market. I was a little apprehensive thinking it might be a little touristy - but touristy it most definitely wasn't which was a nice surprise. Seeing the market was fantastic - the locals all coming together as they do every morning to sell fruit, vegetables, nets, baskets etc. We were largely ignored as we made our way through the thick of it and sat and watched which was perfect. From here we were taken down to another floating market, similar to the first one but a little smaller. Watching the local ... read more

A short flight from Danang took us to Saigon, also known as Ho Chi Minh City, and back to big cities with throngs of motor cyclists. We spent an interesting morning visiting the Cu Chi tunnels near the end of the Ho Chi Minh trail, a ninety-minute drive from our hotel. This is where members of the National Liberation Front or Viet Cong lived while fighting American troops. We went down a short section of tunnel, which we could only traverse while bent over, although there were areas such as the kitchen, meeting rooms, and a 'hospital' where we could stand upright. The tunnels enabled the NLF to appear and disappear instantaneously by means of well-camoflauged entrances to the network of tunnels. We also viewed a variety of nasty-looking traps they devised that all resulted in ... read more

After an hour and 1/2 bus ride we boarded a boat to an island in the Mekong River. Pictures tell the story of what we saw. Our guide explained that the women in Viet Nam cover themselves because they want to have pale skin. They even wear socks with their flip flops. The number of scooters is astounding and you do need a license here but they use both sides of the road so they don’t let foreigners drive on their own. Our guide also explained that Vietnam is experiencing prosperity and people are very positive about their future and improvement day by day. Did sense some bitterness with the North as they changed their capital city from Saigon to Hanoi and changed the name. He said Ho Chi Minh city is for paper only. It ... read more