Touring the Mekong Delta

Saturday and Sunday we had planned two excursions. Saturday would be a trip by van to the Mekong Delta, and Sunday would be visits to the Cu Chi tunnels used by Viet Cong during the war.

We were met at 7:30 on Saturday by Mr. Kim's van (the tour operator) and stopped by several hotels to pick up the other clients - a young couple from the Netherlands, and Indian couple, a Malaysian couple, and an Israeli couple. Except for the Dutch, the rest of us were empty nesters. Again it felt like the setting for an Agatha Christie novel with such different people.

We had to drive about 2 hours to get to the Mekong, which mostly passed quietly.

Once there, we hopped on a small boat that took us out onto the muddy river to go to an island nearby where we would tour. The river was busy with cargo ships, fishing boats, and tour boats ferrying people to the islands and back.

On the island, we first saw a coconut processing place - where they drain the coconut water, grind the coconut flesh then press out the milk, and then cook the milk to make candy. There were stands there selling everything made from coconuts - both the fruit and the wood. We escaped with just a small bag of coconut taffy.

Our next even was a horse-drawn carriage ride through town into the jungle, where I did a short bike ride (on a very small, very uncomfortable bike) on narrow passages through the trees, over the streams, and through town.

Following the bike ride was a sampan ride - a narrow boat sculled by a woman at the back to see the waterways. I had a new appreciate for pictures I'd seen of the Vietnam war with people traveling or wading in the river - I can see how water is a pathway for everything on the Mekong.

Before lunch we had one more activity - seeing the alligators. For 10,000 dong (about 40 cents) we could feed them with a piece of fish attached to a pole. It was fun to see them with their mouths open, snapping at the dangling food.

Right next to the restaurant was a pond with catfish. When the guide threw in a little food, they went crazy. It was scary to think what would happen if we fell in.

Lunch was an elaborate setup of whole fried fish, later prepared into spring rolls, soup, and several other dishes. It was a bit of a push for me to eat things given my general food squeamishness, but it was pretty tasty.

After lunch we returned to our boat to visit another island - this time it was honey production, and they served us honey tea and honey banana chips.

This was probably my favorite part - in Singapore the fruit is expensive and I don't really know the tropical fruit, so getting to sample lychees, rambutans, dragon fruit and others was great.

, and we also a plate full of tropical fruits.

Following a boat ride back across the Mekong (with cold coconuts to drink from) we got back onto our bus for the return trip to Ho Chi Minh City.

We made one stop at a temple at pagoda with giant Buddha statues (mostly built in the last 30 years). While we were walking around, we saw several visitors praying at the shrines, and monks and nuns processing and chanting. It was a weird mis of tourism and active religion that made me feel reverent. The chanting reminded me a lot of Hebrew services during high holidays.

On the way back we were much friendlier with the other couples. The Israeli man was very questioning, asking people what they did, when they could retire, and was very opinionated -- saying Malaysia was going to expel all Christians before too long. The Malaysian couple was very nice and encouraged us to visit Malacca and provided several ideas of where to stay.

That evening the festival was going on still, so we walked around more. We were a bit burned out on Vietnamese food after the big lunch so we went with our go-to: Italian food.

Afterwards we walked around the plaza.

There were a lot of people doing karaoke and also many groups of women doing very dance moves, usually with a cameraman catching it all for posting online.

That seemed enough for one day.