The Mekong Delta was far more populated than I though it would be. There were people everywhere but hardly ever on land. The river on the other hand was full of people, life in the Mekong was lived on the river, people buying and selling at markets, traveling from one place to another, working - fishing, illegally harvested sand from the bottom of the river, entertaining tourists, etc. Down on the Mekong the land was reserved for farming rice, Vietnam is the second biggest exporter of rice in the world, just after Thailand. However according to our tour guide, life is changing, half of the population in Vietnam is under the age of thirty and the younger generations do not want to farm, fish, or live in the country. We saw this when we spent the night in Can Thou the largest city in the Delta, the younger generations were modern, loved to party and spent long nights at bars singing karaoke. But back to the beginning...
Our journey through the Delta had a bit of a rough start. Our first day in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) we booked a tour to the Delta through our hotel, it seemed great $32 each for an over night trip, other travel agency we were seeing were charging twice as much or more, so we were really excited. However booking the tour through the hotel, were English was not well understood, left us wondering what we were getting into. The next morning woke up early and boarded our tour bus at 7 am. Everything seemed fine, there was an assortment of about twenty other people, all excited just like us to be traveling to the Delta. After a short bus ride to the river we boarded a boat that was small but other than that seemed fine. After a forty-minute boat ride along the river, where the boats prop got stuck five times on river debris, the boat broke. We were told that the seals in the engine broke and while the two member boat crew tried desperately for two hours to fix them, the endeavor was eventually terminated and we were then, one by one off loaded from the boat into a small wooden canoe and rowed to shore. And who was the first person to go...Jimmy.... he had been trying to assist with the engine and then when the decision was made that we were leaving the boat he happened to be the closest to the canoe and therefore the first and easiest person to offload. However I was needless to say a little bit surprised when I saw Jimmy being paddled to shore out the window of the boat. As soon as we all got to shore we then had to walk through the river villages on small muddy roads, because it had been raining here in the south for months, which for some on the trip was a true feet but Jimmy and I really enjoyed seeing the small town life all around us, even if our legs were covered in mud. We walked for about 5 kilometers to a spot where the road was large enough for the bus to enter. We boarded the air conditioned bus for a two hour drive to another port on the Mekong were we boarded another boat, that worked, which took us to dragon island for lunch. After lunch we went to a coconut candy factory and then for a walk through some fruit orchards and finally some tea at a bee farm, where they made amazing honey. After all this everyone was pretty tired and thought the day was over, this was around 5:30 PM. But we all boarded the bus again and drove for another 3 hours to were we would spent the night, in Can Thou. This wouldn't have been so bad except it was dark and as we have already mentioned the driving in Vietnam is out of control. So then after three hours we reach a town where we thought our hotel was located but on no, we then had to take a fairy across another rive to get to Can Thou, the largest city in the Mekong, and the only way to get there is by fairy. Apparently they were building a bridge but after two years of working on one, there was a massive accident and the bridge collapsed and now there seems to be some bad voodoo or something around restarting the project. So our tour bus boarded a big fairy, after an hour wait, and then we finally arrived. Our hotel room was sparse to say the least, no air-conditioning, but we made due, we were tired but the day was filled with so many great things it was hard to be mad about the travel delays, however many others were. Then next morning we woke up at 6 am and left on another boat cruse at 7. This boat was very nice, and worked, and took us to the largest floating market on the Mekong. After the market we went to a rice noodle factory and a rice harvesting factory. After our tours we had a great lunch and then travel back across the fairy to walk through another large market, filled with frogs, snakes, snails, cat fish, eels, rats, turtles, chickens, ducks etc, pretty much anything that moved on land or in the ocean was sold at the market for someone to have a lovely dinner. There were also every vegetable and fruit under the sun to be purchased. We then traveled back to Saigon arriving back to the same hotel and went to bed. Over all the trip was amazing but definitely not anything like The Kangaroo Cafe tour company we used in Hanoi. We enjoyed the Saigon Mini Hotel our first night in Saigon and thats why we chose to stay there again... Unfortunately I woke up this morning with several bed bug bights, Jimmy and I slept in our double sleep sheet but before we went to bed I was laying on the bed reading unprotected. After researching bed bugs and seeing some pretty horrible pictures we learned that if your skin is prone to swelling easily, as when you get a mosquito bite, then the same thing will happen with bed bugs - although some people could become bitted and not even know it, because there skin doesn't swell. Therefore I have red welts all over my legs, thank god none on my face, those of you who have seem mosquito bites on my forehead know how horrible that would be, and Jimmy has none! Anyways they are suppose to go away relatively quickly if you don't itch them... I guess I will just be more careful at the next place. We leave for Hong Kong in the morning, which we are Very excited about. We will write again soon, miss and love you all.
The floating market where hundreds of thousands of pounds of produce are flung from boat to boat every day. The veggies on the tall pole represent what each boat has to sell.
This kid was amazing, selling beer in the middle of the river.
Floating through the Jungle in little river boats.
Trying to help with the broken boat.
