Mekong Delta

Honestly the term "Mekong Delta" gives me the creeps. But the "American War" — was over 25 years ago. Time to move on.

The Mekong Delta is still a bit complicated to visit on one's own, so we're taking another mini-package from Victoria Hotels. We've visited floating markets, floating fish farms, and in general sight-see via the Mekong River. It's interesting to see a less-touristed part of the country. There really aren't a wide range of places to stay, it's either very upscale, or backpacker joints. Like elsewhere we've seen in Vietnam, new hotels are being built all over the place. In a few years it'll be a whole 'nuther place.

At the end of our visit, rather than going back to Saigon and flying on to Phnom Penh, we've arranged space on a speedboat, and will travel from Chau Doc, Vietnam up the river to Phnom Penh, Cambodia - about a four-hour trip. At this point we're having to pay the cost of 4 people (unless 2 more decide to go) — and the hotel has asked us three times now "whether we still want it". Look at the map — unless we wanted to travel overland (not a good idea) — there's not much choice other than boat. Even paying "twice", it's still cheaper than flying from Saigon — and a whole lot quicker and easier.

Background: The Mekong Delta is comprised of small villages that dot dozens of ribbon-thin arroyos meandering under a thick canopy of papaya, mango and jackfruit trees. Some are reachable only by longtail boat, and then only at high tide.

Floating markets are the Delta's prime attractions. Unlike those found in Bangkok, these markets aren't for the benefit of camcorder-toting tourists. Early each morning the Bassac River and its tributaries swell with vendors in sampans, houseboats and longtails jammed with fresh Delta produce: jackfruit, mangosteen, durian, papaya, mango, bananas, pineapple, guava, fresh vegetables and smuggled sundries from cigarettes to shampoo.

Updates

11/11/01 5:30am — Another day up unreasonably early; rush to breakfast. Three+ hours in a minivan (small by American standards) from Saigon to Can Tho. Bumpy roads. Driver traineed + companion, who is practicing from a book called "English for Pedicab Drivers". It's shows the Vietnamese phrase, English meaning, and transliteration into Vietnamese. "How much to go for one hour?" translates to something like "Hah muh tew goh fah wune-owwah". It's worse than Boston-speak! (This explains why pedicab drivers are completed incomprehensible). Kathy worked with him for a while, reading the sentence in Michgan-ese after he read it in Vietnamese-lish. Entertaining. Meanwhile, Scott and the Driver attempted to converse in French. Attempted.

Of course the usual driving "techniques" applied. This was the first vehicle we were in with functioning seatbelts — and the first time I've seen a Vietnamese wearing one.

Once in Can Tho, we took it easy for the rest of the day - napped, then sat out on a patio overlooking the river, sipping rum and mango juice while the world floated by in an amazing variety of watercraft. (We were later talked into having a drink called "Carry Me Home", which lived up to its reputation). Drink prices are near what resorts in the west (e.g. Hawaii) cost: $4.50 plus VAT and service charge each. Guess they've got to gouge us somewhere. Fortunately, the Vietnamese massages we had just before hand were only slightly more expensive than the drinks — about $10 an hour. The highlight was when the masseuse stood on the table, grabbed an overhead bar, and walked up and down our legs and back.

11/12/01 4:45am — "Up all night I could not sleep, the whisky that I drank was cheap". Actually it was damn expensive. Had to get Kathy up at 5:30; tour of the floating markets started at 6:30. It was quite interesting! We've become increasingly wary about "off the shelf" package tours - especially group ones, but it's the only practical way to get to the floating market (about 9km upriver), and the "group" turned out to be just us and an Australian couple. Most of life down here in the Delta is oriented toward the water - there are endless side canals, and side canals off those. Think Florida Everglades (before they were drained), but fully populated. Lots of people live on the river in boats of all sorts (a fair number of which sport TV antennae). The big markets are on the river. There are few "real" bridges, lots of ferry craft and precarious bamboo contraptions for getting over the small side canals. Aside from the market we went to a Tourist-trap "Fruit and Flower farm", where we sampled fruit, looked at fruit plants (a little interesting but we'd seen — eaten — most of this stuff before), and tried not to completely ignore the nice man hawking fruit refrigerator magnets ("Look! Pineapple!") and cheap embroidered tablecloths.

11/12/01 4pm — Lunch (adequate pizza), nap. We've been monitoring CNN about Lingling, the pending typhoon that's trashed Southern Philippines and is headed for coastal Southern Vietnam. We're inland about a hundred miles, sky's blue. It's unexpectedly nice, actually. Not nearly as hot as expected (high 70s maybe). (Update: the typhoon missed us completely; it hit the central part of the country)

11/13/01 6pm — Quick visit to the local market in the morning. At 2pm, we left for sightseeing tours and the drive to Chau Doc. The "sights" were a walk through a basket-weaving village — interesting to see the day-to-day lives of people off the main roads (there was just a small track through the village). The other stop was a "stork sanctuary" — a plot of wetlands that had been set aside for water birds. We didn't actually see any storks - like Bird Island, they fly back home at sunset, and we were there too early. But there were hundreds and hundreds of snowy egrets, and some anhingas (duck-like birds that dive for fish). Most interesting sight was a set of Japanese camera fanatics that had been doing the same "Mekong circuit" as us, all lined up in a row, clicking away with their huge lenses at these birds (as they had been at everything else). The drive to Chau Doc was beautiful - along the Mekong River the whole way. This would be a great place to bike - flat as a pancake, and so many interesting/beautiful sites along the way — it was a shame we had to go by them so fast. We've settled in our new abode in Chau Doc, VN. The hotel's the newest of the bunch, we've got a river view, and a gecko (small lizard) wandering around our room. Charming really. The hotel is located exactly where the Bassac River flows into the Mekong - right in front of our balcony. The Bassac is the last major tributary of Mekong, and the river is huge and fast flowing here. we'll take a couple of tours, tomorrow we're on our own to explore the town or just hang out.

11/14/01 5pm — Morning tour (mountain, tacky pagodas). Lunch. Nap. Afternoon tour was a trip up the various rivers and canals. It's fascinating just to watch life lived on the water, but we had a special destination - a floating fish farm. One side of the river is lined with them. Think of a rather large, well built houseboat, with a series of trap-doors under the living room floor (literally). There is a huge cage built under the house, where a species of carp is raised from a fingerling to a couple kilograms over the course of a year. Think of 70,000 or so of these fish down in the basement. Open the trap-doors, toss in some fishfood pellets, and you instantly have a swarm of hundreds/thousands of fins splashing water on the living room floor. Right in front of the TV and china cabinet. Sounds odd, but it works; the people who own these are quite wealthy, relatively. There are about 5000 of these farms in the neighborhood. Next stop was a "Cham" people's village - it was a weaving village; the interesting bit was that the Cham are Islam (but perfectly friendly, our guide reassured us) Beer & escape from the sun [Scott's looking a bit cooked]. Dinner across the street at a local place; a nice dinner with beer for about $4 total. Sure beats prices at the hotel, and the food is better too.

11/15/01 7pm — Mostly took the day off from being Tourists - hung out at the hotel, read, worked on the web site, napped. When you've got seven weeks, you don't have to "power vacation". And it only took a few days to realize that!

Photos