Mekong Delta tour.

Saturday, Feb. 19.
Our driver and another driver are waiting when we leave at 7:15 a.m. I suppose the lady did not feel it was worth her trouble. Yes, the price will be the same. Today we take a slightly different route - the round-about. This is way more exciting than leaving the red light just as it changes and going left in front of the oncoming traffic as we did yesterday!
The area in front of the tourist office is in utter chaos today. There are more tours buses and tourists. Today our Mekong Delta tour leaves a few minutes late. We have the same guide we had yesterday, so we hear the same jokes.
About half-way on our 1 ½ hour trip to our first stop, we make a pit/smoke break at an incredibly elaborate restaurant/tourist store complex with many extremely clean W.C.’s. One of the small restaurant buildings is extra fancy and has on the wall a picture of some crown prince who has visited. Probably, we could probably not afford a meal in this room!

One of the many arms of the Mekong River.

We reach My Tho, a port city with many bridges, the main one for the #1 highway to Phnom Penh was only completed two years ago. Before that all the traffic had to take a ferry to cross this wide section of the Mekong river.
We board a motorized, flat-bottomed boat that will be our main transport in this area. We visit a coconut processing “shack”; ride in a pony-pulled wagon; eat a Vietnamese lunch complete with a whole fish for each table of six, the pieces wrapped in rice paper with some spicy rice, a very spicy-soup, cucumber wrapped in rice paper, and a platter of steamed vegetables.
We move back to the boat, and on to a honey farm. There we can hold the honey comb - Peter does. At the last stop, we are entertained by a group of traditional singers and are fed a variety of local fruits. I now have two more I can buy from the market as I know what they are!

I have a very noisy group of Oriental people at the next table that are annoying, as they are talking through the performance. When the British family at our table start two different conversations, I get up and move closer to the stage so I can hear. This is a good move, as I not only get to video a bit of the performance - voices like gentle birds - I notice a young man at the table singing along with the final song. Once we are back on the boat, he sits in front of us and I ask him about the song. He says he is from the Con Phung (Phoenix Island) area, and that it is a traditional song. He will not be returning to Sai Gon with us, as he and his friends will stay for the weekend and visit his family and his two-year-old son. He works in security at the airport (a good job). His father helped the Americans in the occupation. He does not go to Hanoi as he says the “northerners” have a different mind-set than the people of the south - a nice way of saying the Chinese influence is more there.
Out beautifully-presented and delicious fish.


Imagine the Viet Cong lerking there.

Peter holds the busy bees.

Their voices are as sweet as birds. Not bad looking either!

This snake is interested in my toes.

The ladies wrap each tiny candy in edible rice paper then in waxed paper - all day long.

From the performance they take us by small, four-seater, row boat back to where our bigger boat is docked. All in all, even though we are in a bus of people - not always to our liking - it is a fascinating day.


Aren't they a cute couple! The little and big boats.


On the way back to the city, we again see many fields of rice and many that contain the graves of family members. This is the tradition, to bury in concrete on the family property. We also see lots of kites flying in the open fields. Obviously, this is a local traditional play. In the city, it is hacky-sacking with a circle of three to ten people with any small object being propelled by the feet.

This is how kids ride on a motorcycle/scooter.


Hacky-sacking in the park.
As it is almost 6 p.m. when we return to town, Peter makes another reservation in the office and we seek out a pizza restaurant to let Peter have his weekly fix. After a bit of hesitation, we settle on Pizza Hut. There are more workers than customers when we arrive, but it balances out in time. We must listen very carefully in order to understand the Oriental English, but do have enjoyable pizzas. Peter gets his Pepsi (the cola of choice in Vietnam) and I have a watermelon juice.
We stroll back to the hotel, as we need to stretch our legs and need one more challenge of dodging traffic!
Tomorrow we must change hotels, as we can’t get an extra day here, so we have decided to move down - but not basic - and take a room around the corner for the Sinh tourist office from which we will get an early bus to Nha Trang, and beaches, on Monday (your Sunday) morning.