Thursday, November 14 - Mekong Delta

Thursday, November 14 - Mekong Delta

We were out early this morning for a trip to visit the floating market on the Hau River.  En route, we passed many homes made of corrugated tin, either on the river bank or perched on stilts over the water.  They truly looked patched together, and too fragile to last, but we could see some really nice furniture inside some of them and they'd obviously been around for some time.

The market was unlike anything we'd ever seen.  Large boats are both family homes and businesses; with children on board, they're loaded with all manner of produce.  Samples of their offerings are mounted on bamboo poles -- pineapples, potatoes, pumpkins and more were perched high above the traffic, a unique form of signage, to be sure!  Smaller wooden sampans would pull alongside, place their order (to be taken to markets onshore), load up their purchases, pay the wholesaler, and putter off to the next dealer.  And, speaking of puttering, the drive shafts on the small boats were about ten feet long and trail behind the motor at an angle, so the propellers are far behind the boats.  Some boaters steer with their feet on the rudder, while our driver guided the onboard steering wheel with his feet as he reclined in his seat while "shaving" with tweezers!

After leaving the market, we traveled on a small stream, past houses that ranged from wooden boats, to tin shacks, to some nice-looking concrete buildings.  Along the way, people were bathing and doing laundry in the (muddy) water, and just going about their morning routines. Our destination was a fruit farm, where we sat in an open-air pavilion and enjoyed tea and some tropical fruits, while frogs, some small birds, and rats cooked on a grill nearby!

Back on the water, we returned to Can Tho and our car and driver for the three-hour trip to today's destination, Chau Doc, a border town and popular departure point for boat trips to Cambodia.  After lunch in town, we boarded a boat for a visit to a fish farm, a village of family homes floating above cages in which thousands of fish are raised.

Then, it was on to a Cham Village on a quiet stream.  The Cham people are an ethnic minority in central and southern Vietnam.  They are Muslims, with the women wearing traditional headcoverings, and their community has a modern mosque, which we were able to visit. 

 While there, we encountered three very persistent little girls selling some baked goods.  Tom purchased something from one, which another tried to swipe and exchange for her own.  When aggression failed, she turned to tears and gave up.  Little Miss #3 followed us down the path, onto the road, to the mosque (where we thought we'd have to ransom our shoes!) and back, importuning all the way.  Surprise, surprise -- she won!

We returned to our waiting driver and drove to the outskirts of Chau Doc for a stop at the large Buddhist temple at the foot of Sam Mountain.  We also drove up the mountain for a look at the city and surrounding rice paddies below, the nearby river, and, in the distance, Cambodia.

This was our last day in Vietnam. At the hotel, we bid farewell to Cong and Mr. Tung, our guide and intrepid driver in Saigon and through the Mekong Delta.

Tomorrow, it's on to Cambodia!

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Random observations about Vietnam (or, things I've forgotten to write in earlier posts):

●     The women really do wear those conical hats!

●     Farmers bury their dead and erect monuments in their fields; they're visible everywhere.

●     On the "highway" between Saigon and the Mekong Delta, there are many cafes in open-air pavilions.  In addition to tables and chairs, there are many hammocks, so that tired travelers can nap before continuing their journeys.

●     Speaking of tables and chairs.  While in Hanoi pre-school size stools are the seating of choice, in Saigon and the south, the preference is for somewhat higher stools, or kindergarten-sized armchairs.  Also in the south, the French influence is evident in the placement of sidewalk tables and chairs facing the street to face the passing scene.  Regardless, tables, stools and chairs are almost universally made of plastic; the country is overrun with it.

●     Despite some heavily anti-American propaganda that colors official accounts, exhibitions, and displays about the war, the people we've encountered seem to bear no animosity toward Americans.  We've talked about the war with a couple of our guides and the sense we have, based on their comments, is that, for young people here, especially, the war is part of history, along with many other conflicts with occupying or invading countries.  They discuss the past, but prefer to live in the present.  On more than one occasion, we've spotted people with American flag or USA t-shirts!

●     Vietnam seems to have adopted a kind of "cafeteria communism."  Education is neither compulsory nor free; school tuition rises with the grade level of school.  As noted in a previous post, students go to school only for half-day sessions.  Very few go to university; of every thousand students who apply (via a series of local, district, and national exams), only five or six are accepted!  Likewise, there is no universal healthcare and we've been told that healthcare is so expensive that people generally go without it.

●     And, for future travelers here, come with an empty suitcase!  You can buy clothing and everything else for your trip incredibly cheaply in the markets.  On second thought, just bring a toothbrush; you can buy the suitcase here, too!