Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Today’s excursion to the Mekong Delta was long but wonderful because I got to see the country side. The houses and businesses that I got to see from the bus window were similar to those we’ve seen before and most of the rural population was, again, poor farmers. But not all.

You may get tired of seeing all of these markets but I never do so here they are once again. I love the variety of produce, the colors and the bold and innovative ways the owners present their wares. The one above, like many we saw, was right out on the roadway and the drivers just stop there in the street to make their purchase.

Closer to Saigon there were new housing units in all stages of construction and beautiful university buildings. To look at some of these buildings one would think that all is well here but that’s not the case. The guides wouldn’t (couldn’t?) discuss economics or education or politics or many of the things that we would have liked to have learned about because their Communist government is more repressive than it seems on the surface and they didn’t dare.

I enjoyed peeking down the side streets and waterways where most of the people live. Most of the houses on stilts have been removed from the rivers, we’re told, because of the pollution that they poured directly into the river. The Mekong travels through 6 countries, though, so the possibility of cleaning it up, even given the very best try, in any one country, seems very remote.

As we travelled through the countryside on the way to the Delta I thought that it was not as beautiful as Bali’s had been. Again there were miles of rice farms, which also served as family cemeteries, but here there were also orchards of longans and bananas and coconuts and many things which I did not recognize.

Our two and a half hour ride brought us to the Mekong Delta where we boarded a long, low boat which took us to several destinations along the banks of that dirty but important river. Our first stop was at a pottery factory where it became immediately obvious that Dale had made the right decision not to come on this trip, having heard that you needed to be more sure-footed than he is. We jumped off of the boat onto this narrow ledge and then over irregular, high steps into the factory

where they make the largest pottery I have ever seen.

Obviously you can’t make these on a wheel so they use molds and then fire them in huge kilns heated with rice husks. (I love to see the inventiveness of people who don’t just have everything they might want and instead use what they have.)

As we made our way down a branch of the river we enjoyed seeing boats of all types and uses. Fishing is a major occupation and many people live on their boats while others just live close to the water.

This smart dog was sticking close to his master. They still eat dog in Vietnam but only a certain breed, we were told.

The main part of the river was wide and full of traffic while the smaller branch was narrow and quite shallow.

So shallow, in fact, that we actually got stuck at the extreme low tide. The guide said not to worry (but I did, a little) and after a few minutes of observing the traffic jam up ahead where all the boats were stranded just as we were and being entertained by the driver who chopped open coconuts for everyone to drink, sure enough, the tide came in enough to get under way.

As we travelled the river I was amazed that the banks weren’t all falling in, that the steps could support anyone and that the bridges were still standing and handling traffic.

But life seemed to be going along just fine and even looked lovely in some places. The place where we ate lunch was hidden at the back of a large property and I realized that probably many places were hidden from our view on the river and there was lots more there than meets the eye of the traveller by boat.

We asked about the interesting chains of “beads” growing on these trees and were told that they don’t eat them but used them for decorations. The trees in the yard were loaded with rose apples and we had some for desert but I didn’t like them as much as the jack fruit which we also had and which we saw growing to gigantic size along the river.

Our lunch was a delicious, over the top authentic, Vietnamese meal! They had to demonstrate how to eat this fish as well as some of the other dishes that we thoroughly enjoyed.

Back on the river, after another interesting jump from shore to boat,

we continued on to a place where we learned how several common food products were made and got to taste them. They popped rice and mixed it with various spices and sugars before pressing and cutting it into bitesized pieces. They cut coconuts open with a special tool and cooked the milk with lots of sugar to make candy. (I didn’t have the heart to tell them that all my life I had been making better coconut candy with a recipe my Dad brought back from India.) They showed us how they make “rice paper” which instead of using for art projects they eat. They invited us to try their snake wine, made with a variety of snakes together in the vat, and then we got to hold the python if we liked. I didn’t try either!

We were glad to see a church along the river and of course we saw a few temples; here in Vietnam the “temples” are sometimes serving more than one religious group and there are many different religions represented. We went back out to the main river and then in to a very narrow branch where we stepped from our boat onto smaller sampans (this was NOT easy), most of which were rowed by women (I hope they were paid well for this hard work!), and we, the passengers, enjoyed a nice float for a mile or so.

The water hyacinths were everywhere, making you wonder how this fisherman was catching his fish. Undoubtedly in some clever way that eludes us. Even as the continual (illegal) practice of cock fighting seems to elude the police.

The kids in this boat beside the pier were typical of most Vietnamese we saw or met; they seemed to be the friendliest of people. As we drove back to the ship we used the highway; only for trucks and cars, no mopeds. And I wouldn’t be fair if I left you with only the picture of rudimentary electrical poles; Vietnam is more modern than that. As we discussed with our friends what each of us had seen and heard here we agreed that as good as things may look on the outside the future for these people is bleak unless the government changes completely; a market economy, in a Communist country, is not enough and we feel sorry for the children growing up here.