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Three weeks in Vietnam: Part 4
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Mekong River Delta, Vietnam
Continuing on our lightening tour of southern Vietnam, we left my friend’s cousins’ house for Saigon, eager to depart the following day on our two-day tour of the Mekong River Delta. At only 25 USD, the tour was practically worth it on account of the anticipation and excitement alone. Included in the price of each ticket were a one-night hotel stay, breakfast, two lunches, transportation to and from Saigon, and two half-days of tours and entertainment, and it all started the moment we pulled into town.
The first day was a whirlwind tour of the river, rice factories, vender markets and local attractions. Although the rice processing plant itself was not much of a sight, watching the people turn that rice into various rice treats was thoroughly interesting, and the product was delicious to boot! Rice was grounded into a fine powder, mixed with poppy seeds, stamped into sheets, smothered in coconut milk and fried into crispy wafers; and for a ten-count bag of large tortilla sized rice wafers selling for 1 USD, one would be hard pressed to find a better deal. Also on sale were dried fruits, snake wine, and various trinkets – fans, hats, wooden carvings, paintings and chop sticks.
Restaurant on Mekong Delta, Vietnam
For lunch our first day, we dined under large, thatched huts situated along the banks of the river and treated to a delicious meal, after which we walked around to admire the vegetation and many ponds. Tucked away in back of the restaurant, alongside a paved walkway was a fenced-off compound teaming with crocodiles. Lucky for us, our feeding time roughly coincided with theirs. Several of us looked on with interest as the crocodiles tore chunks of raw meat from the fishing line of an employee – a site to see, though not the last one. We finished up our time there with a musical performance: two musicians and two singers performed a small collection of songs for us, telling traditional Vietnamese tales of love and heartbreak (or so we were told by our tour guide). Although I didn’t much care for the music, it was perhaps an appropriate ending to our lunch break – a three-pronged introduction to Vietnamese culture: food, ecology and music. Important though the other two are, ecology, of course, served as the main focus for our two-day tour.
Houses along the delta
At the time of our tour, everything I knew about the Mekong River Delta had been gleaned from the several war journals I had read in middle school. Apart from it being a particularly dangerous, war-torn bit of real estate during the war, I knew relatively little. The one expectation I did have held up remarkably well, and anyone who watches National Geographic or Animal Planet with any regularity will know what I mean. I speak of course of the narrow and anonymous tributaries meandering silently along banks overhanging with lush, forest green – trees, bushes, grass and ferns singing their chaotic symphony of nature. One might find similar performances in Amazonia, central Africa and other Southeast Asian locales, though each undoubtedly has its own unique, local flavor. Vietnam’s flavor was in the many villages located along the way. Most were situated a bit back from the bank, behind a thin veil of forest cover. Nevertheless, the residents remained keenly aware of river traffic. The cheerful and enthusiastic greetings of school children could be heard along entire stretches of river as our tour group passed by. At times the distant voices of children was the only evidence of human life; other times the children would come running to the banks of the river to wave at the passing tourists – a truly heartfelt welcome. The charm of the Mekong River tributaries was on full display that day. Of course, the main river was of a slightly different character. Wider, more commercially developed and with more traffic, the Mekong River does not offer the same intimacy and seclusion of its many tributaries. It does, however, offer something different to its maritime travelers.
Woman and her son selling drinks to tourists
In an attempt to design something of an itinerary prior to our trip, my friend proposed visiting the floating markets of the Mekong River. Following the link to a travel agency in Saigon, I read through descriptions of various tour packages, including guided tours of the river itself, gardens and floating markets. Not even bothering to look up pictures, I let my imagination paint for me with broad brush strokes and vivid colors what the floating markets would be. I imagined whole platforms crowded with venders and booths overflowing with the fruits of Vietnam, all interconnected with short, floating wooden walkways, guiding the tourist from platform to platform, vender to vender, hidden treasure to hidden treasure. As often happens when one is left to contemplate things unseen, the reality often fails to measure up to the grandeur conjured by the imagination. The reality of the floating markets if more akin to steelhead fishing on any of America’s smaller rivers on a Saturday afternoon: dozens of boats – each their own vender – crowded together, floating side by side all hoping for a bite (customers instead of fish, of course). The analogy is limited, however, by the structure of the floating market. Traffic lanes remain open for easy navigation, as opposed to the anarchic array of fishing boats, and many boats will latch on to one another to create a “retail chain,” as it were. As our tour boat puttered along the traffic lane entering the floating market, a woman pulled up alongside ours, tying the two together as her child of about six began working the seated pairs of tourists on our boat, peddling everything from bottled water and juice to Coca Cola and iced-tea – an entrepreneur if ever I’ve seen one.
Each boat of the floating market offers its own stock of produce: lettuce in one, melons and pineapples in another. Clearly this market was geared towards locals with their own modes of maritime transportation, but seeing the market was a treat.
Following our tour of the floating market on our second day we made our way to a nearby garden where we were treated to a sampler plate of fresh fruits: papaya, guava, mango and pineapple. After a much appreciated period of rest in the shade we walked a circuit around the garden, seeing fruits and vegetables the names of which I have since forgotten or never knew. The variety of produce on display was impressive; and much to my surprise, the beauty of the irrigation canals was not compromised by the irritation of insects. Lunch was next, followed by a half-hour of free time at a large produce market.
Exhausted from all the hustle and bustle, and wet from a brief downpour, we were happy to settle into our seats for the three-hour bus ride back into Saigon. Unfortunately for us, however, by this point in the trip our itinerary had taken on a life of its own, and would not afford us a day of rest. Check back soon to read about our trip to the coast.
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