The Mekong Delta

---

We set off early again and yet again we have an early 'toilet stop' at a handicapped persons (Agent
Orange victims) handicraft centre - us and 20 other coach parties. Unlike yesterday I'm really impressed with the lacquer work stuff that's made here. I didn't realise that all the patterns and pictures are made with egg shells and then varnished and lacquered. If I had the room and the baggage allowance I would definitely have bought some of this beautiful work. Maybe another time.
After we leave here I begin to appreciate just how big HCMC (Saigon) really is - we pass through an very new modern district that our guide tells us is going to be the new City Centre - what it looks like is Vietnams answer to Londons Docklands - really expensive houses and flats that the ordinary people can't afford. A house here is half a million $US minimum! Lots of rich foreigners are buying them up.
Anyway we drive almost continuously through populated districts for nearly 2 hours! Apparently 5 of the 24 districts are 'rural' and includes Cu Chi which is 20km outside the centre of HCMC!
We eventually arrive at the mighty Mekong River which is rather a muddy brown colour as it carries a lot of sediment - dredgers are at work and the sludge is used for building purposes.
There are several modern looking 'boarding point' buildings with lots and lots of small blue tourist boats tied up alongside them. They are all wooden and look a bit rickety but they're floating and our one gets us across the main trunk of this huge river in 25 minutes where we are deposited neatly onto 2 smaller boats and off up a small tributary. This is brilliant as we are engulfed by coconut palms on both banks almost making an enclosed archway for us to pass underneath. This is real mangrove type swamp with huge deposits of silt making up the banks. After about 20 minutes of this we pull up at a local coconut sweet making factory and after a quick demo of how it's made we get the full on sales treatment before setting off again to a riverside restaurant (one of many!) for lunch where they try and sell us expensive 'elephant ear fish' on top of the free spring rolls and soup. I decline to take them up as the prices are on the pricey side. Over lunch I get talking to Hassan, an Indian muslim from Gujerat, and an Indonesian guy from Bali (also a muslim) - we are all on the same trip and all speak english. Hassan now lives and works in Singapore and reckons I need to earn at least 2,500 Singapore Dollars a month just to get by if I want to live there. Well at least I now have some sort of benchmark for the wages.
After lunch we have a short walk to lots of tourist stalls and some free tropical fruit and some local musicians. The tour companies get paid a commission by these people to bring their tourists to them - get used it! I finally get to try Durian! It doesn't smell too bad and I vaguely remember this smell from when I was very small when we lived in Singapore in the late 60's - once smelt never forgotten. The Indonesian guy and Hassan say it smells right but didn't taste sweet enough. I'm advised to try it in Malaysia where it's much sweeter. I can't say I was impressed with it but I didn't dislike it. I wouldn't order it in a restaurant but I wouldn't leave it if it was put in front of me either. I can't really decribe the tatse but it repeats on you for hours after you've eaten it!
We set off again after a short rain shower in even smaller boats paddled by 2 women who drop us off mid river to our original boat and we head back for the bus.
The Mekong Delta is home to some 18 million people - these include chinese and cambodians. It produces 65% of the rice exported from Vietnam and Vietnam is the worlds 2nd largest exporter of rice next to Thailand! It is the rice bowl of the country. I learn that the 2 crop system is Sapa and the North only. Here they have 3 crops a year inter cropped with cucumbers and salad crops for 6 weeks at a stretch in between rice crops. Also when they harvest rice here they burn the stubble and the chaff from threshing on the land to fertilise it and plant anew each time. They also make (distill) some very powerful 'sticky rice' wine - this is sold at the roadside suitably watered down to 40% ABV in plastic bottles - it is either clear or pink but I'm not sure what affects this. I'll steer clear of it!
On the way back I notice that the wide strip of grass (about 30 yards wide) separating the lanes of the highway has water in it with lilies everywhere and in the evening the locals fish in it with fishing rods just like we would! There loads of anglers right in the middle of the highway during rush hour - far out man!
I decide that the Mekong Delta is another 'must' like Da Lat and the Central Highlands for another visit - it's really green and very beautiful and the small waterways and tributaries are very seductive. I'm glad I made the effort to get on the bus this morning despite major misgivings about bus travel in this heat.
Tomorrow I do Saigon - the War Museum and the main market - the street food and roadside restaurants in the market are supposed to be brilliant and really cheap - best food in Saigon! It's got a lot to beat in Ha Noi and I'm looking forward to being able to compare the two. I can't see me losing any more weight in the next few days! lol haha

Another early night Zzzzzzz

---

Comments

[davanna]

Wow!!!
Dear Nigel, Its Dave who you met in Queens before you left! Well we have read youre very amusing and informative blog and laughed out loud at your predicaments, the train and the trots brought back memories!!! You seem to be having a fab time! Well arrive in Bangkok on jan 6th and have booked in a hotel for 3 days then we are planning to go island hopping down south. Would be good to meet up if youre about then or after youre return from Chang Mai. Keepin touch [e-mail] cheers Dave and Anna