Southern Vietnam: Along the Mekong River

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The Mekong is Asia’s international river, starting in Tibet and flowing through China’s Yunnan province, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia before it gets to Vietnam. Issues of water conservation and environmental impacts of dams are the same here as on the Rio Grande or Colorado in the States. South of Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City or HCMC), the river breaks into a delta, much like the Mississippi. We traveled on a teak boat south from the town of Cai Be to Ha Tien on the west coast of Vietnam, which borders the Gulf of Thailand.

A working river, the Mekong carries everything from huge barges to tourist boats to small boats and canoes carrying produce, fish or people . We boarded one day and floated overnight, then transferred to a car to drive across “dancing roads” – we have those in Tennessee’s rural areas – to the west coast. Along the way, we visited a floating market, an artisan rice noodle factory, and a beautiful national forest. The company we used was “Dragon Eyes”, which provided a beautiful two-stateroom teak boat. However, there was no one in the other stateroom, so the staff of four (captain, engineer/cook, server/bartender, and guide) took care of just us. In ultimate luxury, we ate royally, slept in comfort in an air conditioned stateroom, and enjoyed a bathroom with a large shower. Upstairs was a shaded deck, an area where we ate dinner and watched the sunset, and a place where we could sit in front of the wheelhouse and watch the river. By the way, here’s what they served us for our “light lunch”: pumpkin soup with coconut milk, shrimp, beef in lettuce leaves, sea bass with tomato sauce, rice, stir-fried green beans and carrots, and fruit with yoghurt sauce for dessert.

We learned that many of the locally-made boats have eyes to watch the river ahead for dangers like tree limbs, crocodiles, and other boats. Water hyacinth, an invasive bane of American rivers, particularly in the lower Potomac, is used here for human food and crafts. It’s still advancing across the rivers in Vietnam and I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to eradicate some of it. Round-up comes to mind, except they’ve already been sprayed with Agent Orange once. Small boats use a unique motor system, with the outboard motor mounted at one end of a long pipe and the propeller at the other end. It allows the driver to lift the motor out of the water when necessary and steer by moving the propeller through the water.

On our way to the west coast of Vietnam, we stopped at the Tra Su National Forest. Most of the forest is (very) wetland, and we traveled by motorboat and canoe. The trees are called “paperbark trees”, and we saw huge piles of their trunks being stacked and loaded onto boats along the river. While we were in the Forest, we learned that they’re actually eucalyptus trees. The park is threaded with cathedral-like watertrails, and we saw many egrets, herons, and a huge type of kingfisher.

All across Vietnam, we’ve visited floating markets and “night markets”. We’re now on Phu Quoc island off the west coast, where the local market is crammed with fresh fruits, vegetables, and almost every kind of finned fish and shellfish you can think of. Phu Quoc is also famous for its pearl farms, bee farms, pepper farms, and fish sauce factories. We know this because one day, we went on an island tour and were taken to one of each of them. The rest of the time we’ve spent doing absolutely nothing at a seaside resort on the west side of the island. If you go due west from our beach, you’ll land in Thailand; due east is Vietnam, and due north is Cambodia. Due south is Singapore.



Tomorrow, we’ll fly back to HCMC, and the next day, we’ll start north through Vietnam.

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Photos

Tra Su National Forest
Cathedral-like waterway through the Forest.

Mekong Eyes I
Our luxury cruise

Mekong Eyes
The beginning of our "light lunch".

Innovative Boat Motor
We saw these boats all over Vietnam -- and in other SE Asian countries on earlier trips.

Comments

[Andre Gloeckner]

I've found it.
Hello neighbors, it looks and sounds amazing. Enjoy your wonderful trip. In Tennessee is all normally. Today we had a tornado watch.