16th December 2014- The Mekong Delta VIETNAM

Mekong Delta - Vietnam 16th December 2014

Today we went to the mighty Mekong Delta, only famous for many of us for its war time connection but now the rice bowl of the country with the richest agricultural lands.

Sometimes the Viet Nam kanguage can be misunderstood !!

Vietnam is the last stop for the Mekong before it enters the sea and round Ho Chi Min City there are many waterways running out to the sea.

This area has 3 rice harvest a year due to its ideal weather & the Mekong and is known as the rice bowl of Asia. We went to a place called Cat Be on the lower Mekong about 2 hours from HCMC to see how life is for the local people. The drive itself was fascinating, we passed through paddy fields where the harvest was well underway and learned that once they have cut down the rice, they put ducks into the paddy to let them eat any rice that has been lost during the cutting. This fattens them up ready for the pot !

We went down the Mekong on a beautiful wooden boat, so much wood out here is mahogany and teak. 

Fruit and Recliners - VIP class

The Mighty Mekong - over 3Km Wide

Village life - Mekong style

Local peasant farmers looking like British tourists

Somewhere in this little tour around a village we were treated to some interesting "Theatre".    The wife and the wife beater in full song.

On our tour of the Mekong Delta, we stopped at a village or more of a "commune" where everything was home grown and reared. At the end of the tour (presumably compulsory for visitors), we were treated to a snack of fresh fruit and other odd substances and the most bazaar play about a wife beating man (in Vietnamese) we think.  This play was suitable rounded off with a duet of Auld Lang Syne so we assumed that all was well in the end but it was hard to tell !!

Janette as  always buying something to support the enterprise.

The floating market - trade only no retail.

You can buy almost everything on the river.

(Above) The local workers showing the signs of lunacy!

We visited a working floating market (unlike the touristy ones in Bangkok) where they hang a sample of their wares on a pole from the front of the boat to show what they are selling. 

The Floating market for trade only - like a floating cash and carry.  This market originated in the 18th century when all business here was done by boat. Despite there now being roads, business continues this way.

The market is all local farmers selling what they make on their few hectares. From there we went on a rowing boat down the internal canals to see the leafy backwaters and how the local people live. 

(Above) oops...miscalculation of the loading of the boat !!

Many still live in bamboo covered wooden shacks but there are also more simple brick houses here than in Cambodia. We thought the conical hats were just tourist tat but they are still used everywhere here as protection from the sun. The local women like them as they keep the sun off their faces and avoid them getting brown, white skin is prized here unlike our desire for tanned skin ! we were given them for our row boat trip as protection from the strong sun.

From here we stopped at a small community production area where they use every bit of the rice & coconuts to make things to sell or eat. We watched them make rice paper, rice snacks from popping rice which they then mix with peanuts or sesame, coconut candy and rice wine.

The manufacture of local sweets made from local fruits and nuts.  It may not get the 5 star food hygene certificate from the Mekong council !!

Sweet making Mekong style on our state orgaanised tour

The government obviously thought that we would all love watching sweets being made, they allocated quite some time to it and they were actually very nice to eat but the alcohol below was a different think altogether

 

Something horrible infused with something terrifying

 They like to jazz up the rice wine with some other flavours, banana, gecko, scorpion, snake….. needless to say the snake wine had to be tried. Not quite a burgundy yet we fear.  We didnt drink any as there was no slimline tonic !!

Ahh, this is obviously much better - Paul and Steve tried a sample and it was confirmed to be revolting - Snake Wine

From there we went to lunch with the local community which we expected to be a simple affair like it had been in Sambor but this was in a beautiful old wooden house with ornate carvings and the most stunning Elephant fish appeared. We all tucked in to fish rolled in rice paper with veg (well except Steve who despite eating spiders won’t put fish in his mouth !) thinking this was lunch only for it to be followed by another 3 courses ! all delicious. We then slept all the way back to HCMC !

"When I say go...go!"

Traffic can be a bit of a problem - crossing the road impossible

This evening we had drinks at the rooftop bar of the Caravelle hotel in Saigon which had stunning views across the city & was where the foreign correspondents used to sit and watch the planes and bombing of the tunnels during the Vietnam war while posting their stories. After a wander round the Dong Khai area we had dinner in a little courtyard area at yet another wonderful Vietnamese restaurant. Mandy and Janette had a clay pot dish which was cooked at the table and in 33 degrees plus humidity an open fire was probably not their best idea !

Paul seemed a bit distracted during dinner until we realised that behind him was a girlie bar with some gyrating going on !