Day 6: Going local in markets and factories

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Geo: 10.2908, 105.756

Who had the bright idea to order tea and coffee for room service at 6.45 am. The alarm tingled gently at 6.30 which we promptly ignored but the ding dong of Sam calling had to be answered! Mac was charged with the responsibility of getting the door as I made the mad dash to bury myself under the covers. Not ordering that for tomorrow....or on any subsequent day.

Breakfast held a little surprise because Mappy had organised an introduction for us to one of the wait staff. He had even gone to the length of sending a photo to Chenda so that she could find us. Took us a few minutes of charades, frowns and puzzles to work out who the "big man" from the "school building" actually was but eventually made the connection. Now we have TWO stars in the dining room to look after us - Chenda and Leah. Have to laugh though - Mac is familiarly referred to as WAY-NEE....got to get both those syllables out.

It was a day ashore today. The tender boats pull up beside the AMA Lotus and the passengers clamber aboard, dressed up to their necks in life jackets, with hand over hand help by the crew. The boats are long, low lying slivers of wood, bobbing in the Mekong, ornately appointed with highly polished "kitchen chairs" with brocaded cushions.

Tang (just like the orange juice...as he reminds us) has been allocated to look after the "yellow group" and, identified by our cabin number plus yellow coloured card and connected to sound with the little audio setup, we made it ashore for the first excursion to the "lovely river town" of Cai Be. It is definitely a treat to read the "creative" blurbs of the brochures and as the pictures will attest to - this isn't exactly "lovely." Nonetheless it is interesting.

The river town is home to 100 000 and every nook and cranny of the foreshore has been claimed for some sort of business. The housing ranges from a boxed area in the back of a boat, to tin shanties on stilts, to multi storied concrete structures. They exist side by side and each neighbour goes about their daily work. Sweeping the stoop, banging the washing in the Mekong, fixing the engines, preparing food or popping rice there is a general "busyness" and sense of "industry" and a happy acceptance of the rhythm of life.

Cai Be is a "famous" floating wholesale market. The boats bring the produce from the farms into the town. The river boats display the produce on offer on a tall mast pronounced phonetically as "cay bel." There are turnips, corn, melon, durian, banana and coconuts dangling in the gentle breeze. There are not so many of these boats in this reach of the river but the traders are busy. They supply the goods to the middle men. The produce is collected and piled high on scooters and bikes and then distributed in smaller markets.

Tang leads the way through the streets and takes us on a visit to a "sweet" factory, a coconut candy shop. It is a series of cooking spots under a palm leaf roof. Everyone is lined up on queue and the process is set in motion as Tang draws along side each station. The workers demonstrate the popping of rice in huge woks filled with river sand. As the rice pops, it is scooped and separated in a sieve and to complete the process the popped rice is combined with a sugary caramel and set in slabs, cut and packaged.

The next room houses the still for the production of the rice wine and the snake wine. Um, yep, that's as sophisticated as it gets. Whole snakes and "snake willies" (Long's description not mine) are soaked in the rice wine - the current batch of snakes are kept for approximately 12 months and then replaced. Samples were on offer....but not for us! The two woman who tried it said it tasted like vodka and warmed the tummy.

Around the corner to see the prized cocks. They are housed in small cages and apparently they keep the men busy. Gambling is illegal in Vietnam but according to Tang there are "secret" cock fights that take place. The spur of the cock is covered in a metal sheath and the cocks are placed in a ring to fight to the death.

With the combination of heat and humidity, broiled snakes, sticky caramel and just the normal village smell Richard and I had had enough and were grateful for a chair. Loraine and Mac sampled the ginger slices, the chocolate rice and the popped rice but despite the dozens of bargains on offer we refrained from taking any of the goodies home.

The walking tour continued with a visit to the French Gothic Cathedral. We had spotted its spire from the water and were able to enjoy the cool interior lit by the magnificent predominately blue stained glass window. Very interesting to hear that if a worker for the government such as a policeman or leader married a Catholic, they had to resign their position.

That's part one of the day complete and it's back in the boats for the return trip just in time for a shower in order to slip out of the perspiration soaked gear before manning up for more food. Mac was the scout and secured a window seat for us today - no whales but still lots to watch as the shoreline slipped by - changing from the stilts of the river homes to long lines of moored boats to industrialised rice plants.

Once the sting of the heat of the day has passed it was back onto the tender boat for the trip into SaDec (coincidentally, this is the name of our cabin.) A definite eye opener this one.

The water is still moving quickly in this reach of the river and there are clumps of floating hyacinth everywhere. The shore fronts of homes have large swathes of hyacinth in surrounding them, held together and tethered with fishing nets. These are barriers created by the home owners to prevent the barges sneaking in during the night and sucking up the sand in the dredges to be taken to Saigon for building projects.

The main attraction for the Ama Lotus visitors was the open markets along the paved waterway. Tang advised the group that "If you don't like what you see just look away." We had arrived in the afternoon to the 24 hour markets and the stall holders were eager to move the last of their produce. Their shrill voices filled the markets as they shouted their reduced prices to the passing traffic on motor bikes and push bikes. There were no locals travelling on foot and true to form, everyone and everything just moves steadily forward and the chaos unravelled itself.

It goes without saying that there were surprises amongst the produce. The "butcher" was just a slab of timber on the pavement with meat out in the sun bloody and raw. There was every type of fish, crustacean and shellfish. There was snake and insects and there were bloodied, scrawny rat carcasses referred to by Tang as "sea rabbit." Fruit and vegetables of every shape, size and colour were piled high by the mound. Rice and dried goods piled in endless rows. Flowers for the altar for offerings. Brooms buckets, nets, bowls, shirts, hats and jewellery.

And people were shopping. Money was changing hands. Every doorway was a "business" and Tang claimed every "big" shop or house as belonging to his "uncles."

Bizarrely though - not one fly! How is that possible?

Rounded out the visit to Sa Dec with a visit to the home of the Vietnamese Chinese man who was the lover of Marguerite Dumas and the central character in her novel The Lover. Was offered afternoon tea here before heading to the Cato Bai temple (had to remove shoes).

Now it is time for the sensitive amongst us to skip over reading this bit. @Mindy, Dad walked around the markets with his FreddoFrog face on. There were so many smells to assault the senses - what was one more? Multiply this by about 400 times. But it was even more hilarious because one of the ladies in our group was trying to survive the "market smells" by covering her mouth and nose with a hanky. Little did she know!

Back on board for more showers and a trip to the top deck for the cocktail of the day the "Fizzy Pagoda." I'm on to this already - this is just the subtle bribe to ensure you are on level three for Long's briefing. Not sure why we need these LONG monologues by LONG - all instructions are delivered to our cabins in The Daily Cruiser. Mac has renamed our Cruise Director TOOLong but we did manage to down 3 Fizzy Pagodas and a rum in the back row totally ignoring the commentary. Not sure how we will survive tomorrow.

Dining room dinner to the usual standard and tonight and of course it is more special because Leah takes very good care of us.

Rounded out the night with a pretty wild rock and roll escapade in the Saigon Lounge. The music was blaring - 25 revellers sweated it out on the dance floor as a string of oldies but goodies (that refers to the music not the dancers) kept the place hopping. Mac found us the perfect zone under an air con vent - so we definitely looked "cool." Making lots of new acquaintances and dancing like no one will ever remember us (literally!)

River cruising suits us @Aunty Gail. Goodnight Vietnam at 11 pm - but thinking we do need our beauty sleep - and not sure what the body will say in the morning.

Steps: 11 256
Temperature: 38 degrees

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Comments

[Aunty Gail]

Glad you love river cruising......we would love to experience it too....maybe one day!! Your description & photos brought back the 'nightmare' that is the produce markets.....the sights & smells.....Ugggghh!!!! How lovely to escape
back to ship and have that very welcome shower!!!! All the food there looks yummy!....xxxxx