Day 80 – April 5 – Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam

Today we joined the Mekong Delta in depth tour which was really nice.  We had a van for 6 with two other couples we had not met before but we enjoyed being with for the day.  The port for Ho Chi Minh City is no longer right in downtown, but an hour outside along the Saigon River. The distance from the city meant a long hour shuttle ride in and out if you wanted to go in by yourself.

The drive from Ho Chi Minh to the Mekong Delta took about 2.15 hours.  We drove part way into Saigon and then took a new elevated highway built through the rice patties with help from the Japanese Government.  This area grows a lot of the rice for Vietnam and for export.  We arrived at Cai Be, a city on the Mekong River where we boarded a small boat for just the 6 of us and our guide.  The boat actually had chairs instead of benches so sitting was comfortable but getting in and out of the boat proved to be more difficult at some of the stops.

The Mekong Delta is huge and is comprised on nine rivers.  The Mekong itself comes all the way from the Tibetan Plateau, through Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.  The amount of water that flows through it is enormous.

There are floating markets all around the Cai Be area and they are local wholesale markets, not the tourist kind.  Each boat displays what it is selling by hanging it on a tall pole.  We saw sweet potatoes, watermelons, and sugar cane in the small area we visited. The smaller boats that come to buy are the local distributors to the various towns and cities in the area.  They buy larger amounts, return to their areas, where they sell the produce to the small markets and shops in that area.

The river is not one channel here; it breaks into many, many channels surrounding many smaller islands.  We stopped on the Island of Thoi Son where we visited several family compounds where the families are small manufacturers.  First was a salt purerifier, i.e. he purchases the raw salt from the sale ponds, then purifies it and repackages it for both wholesale distribution and smaller packages for the local market.  They use the rice husks for the fuel for their ovens heating the purifying pans.

Next was a family who made coconut candy.  Then one who made candy from rice.  They showed us how they popped the rice, mixed it with a sugar candy mix, added peanuts, spread it out on a cooling table, then cut it and packaged it in small packages.  The last family made rice paper.  At each family we got to sample the fresh products as they were made.  They were all surprisingly good.

The only problem we had at the first stop was that Fred stumbled getting off the boat and went to his knees on the concrete.  He knew he had scraped them but his pants didn’t tear and he didn’t think they were scarped too badly.  But when we got back to the ship, there was a pretty good scrap where the skin was removed!

Since Fred had fallen, the boat crew was very careful with him getting on and off the boat.  They even asked for help from some of the other boat crews to make sure he was safe.

The second island we visited an older Chinese style house that now has a small boutique hotel on the property.  We had tea with samples of the very good Thai fruit, such as jack fruit, rose apple, etc.  They were all good.  After tea, we walked through their fruit gardens where many of the fruits we had just sampled are grown.  Throughout both of the islands we visited, there are small concrete “roads” that wind through the area.  You have to be careful of walking them, however, as they are also used by motorbikes and bicycles!

We left the boat on the Cai Be side of the river and had a very good lunch at a local restaurant.  We started with a Dragon Egg, which is sticky rice that has been soaked in peanut oil, and then fried in such a way that is makes a ball about 6-7 inches across that is hollow inside.  Next were a delicious soup, a whole fish (Elephant Ear fish) that was served in a way that it looked like it was swimming, spring rolls, a dish of meat, vegetables and noodles served in what looked like a hot pot, and a vegetable and noodle dish.  The fish was served in a rice cake with lotus root and pineapple and then dipped in the famous Vietnamese fish sauce.  There was more than enough food and all of it was very good.

After lunch, we made our way back to the van and the long drive back to the ship.  No dinner was required but Jan went to the local Folkloric Entertainment in the evening.