Motorbikes and Fishing Barges

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Man made canals are really smelly in low tide. Fish house factories are another pong to the area in the main waterways of Saigon. The combination of sewerage and waste, is especially offensive when the tide is low. Houses run along the bank, held up by stilts, are only 20 - 25 meters square with 4 - 7 members in each one. Many people have disease, dengi fever is high due to mosquitoes. Other pests are rodents, rats and cocroches. High tides come in the houses, it is always damp.
Most Vietnamese cannot swim. They take ferries across the river for 25 cents. Helmets are a regulation on the ferry and children have a school in the Mekong Delta. Commuters take their motorcycles or bicycle transport across with them.
Barges have two eyes because there are two stories; one is that if the Captain gets drunk, then the boats can still get home. The other story is, that when there were lots of crocodiles in the river, the boats would look like a bigger monster with two eyes and scare them away (true) it really worked. Because Vietnamese people are very superstitious, they still paint eyes on their fishing boats today. Due to all the pollution, there are no longer any more crocodiles. ...Needless to say, no more big fish either, only worms.....Since the water is too polluted for fishing anymore, 5 - 6 hours work every day is done by diving in the water separating worms from the mud of the river, $10 - $15 a day for a kilo of worms and workers suffer skin disease. Refer to photograph of worm fishing.
With over 13 million people in Saigon, the other massive sorce of air ollution is road fuels from the roar of constant motorcycles, mainly Hondas and Yamahas costing 1K per bike and the odd Vespa, very expensive for the Vietnamese at 5K per bike...

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Comments

[Michael]

Real eye opener, pardon the pun.
Yes it was an old man joke haha, the pictures and the blog tell the story well, amazing diverse world we have and need to look after :-)