Tour of thte Mekong Delta - 28 September

We left the ship at 8:00 am this morning and loaded onto the bus for a four hour drive to somewhere up the Mekong Delta. Our tour guide for the trip was Tung. He gave us a lesson on the proper way to say his name that beyond my tongue gyrations. That’s him in the yellow shirt. He gave us a running commentary as we headed out of Saigon. Unfortunately, I can’t remember a word of it.

Around 9:30 we made a “happy stop” which was Tung’s way of saying we were taking a bathroom break. I’m going to have to use that from now on. He also told us that refreshments would be available including something that he called “Weasel Shit Coffee” and that is a direct quote! It is coffee where a weasel (or many weasels) eat the coffee beans. It goes through their digestive tracts but does not get digested and comes out the other end whole. The beans are then collected (can you imagine having that job?!), washed (thank God!) and ground into Weasel Shit Coffee. Tung tells us it is very good but I’ll just take his word for it. They had the beans available in the gift shop and I was seriously tempted to get my brother some. However, I refrained because I am such a good sister… and I’m afraid that he would get even with me.

We got back on the bus for another hour towards our destination. We arrived at the river and got onto two boats for a ride past the floating market. Since it was so late in the morning, the market was over but we will see it in action tomorrow. We went to a coconut candy factory and got a quick lesson in how they make it along with a sample. Very tasty. The really interesting part was watching two women make rice paper which the candy is wrapped in. It was fascinating. One woman ladles and spreads a rice and water mixture onto a cloth stretched over a kettle that is over a fire. A lid was placed over the cloth and she let it sit for about a minute. When it was done, she used a spatula to carefully lift the rice paper off the cloth and then draped it over the side of a round revolving bamboo table. It dried there for a few minutes before another woman took it off and carefully draped it over a rack until it was completely dried.

After the coconut place, we walked to the rice puff place for a lesson on how to make that. It is a similar technique to making kettle corn (found at state fairs). They heat a large kettle over a fire but instead of using oil, they use sand that has turned black from heat and use. The man then poured in the rice and stirred the contents continuously. It soon began to puff and he poured the popped rice into a sieve to get rid of the sand. It tasted pretty good but I wanted it to taste like kettle corn L

During the demonstration, the rain had moved in and was drenching everything so we donned ponchos procured by Tung and went back to our boats. Fortunately, the rain soon abated and we puttered up the river to an island where a farm was located. It was a place where the tourist boats could come for lunch. We all had lunch boxes from the ship. Blah! The only good thing you can say about a boxed lunch from the ship is that all of the contents can be identified.

We boarded the boarded the boat after lunch and continued our trek around the island. It was great. We slowly motored around the island at a very slow pace gawking at everything. The water was quite shallow in several paces since it was low tide so we had to shift weight in the boat by having 5-6 students come up to the front to take away the weight from the outboard motor in the back.

Eventually, we came out to open water again. The wind had picked up and the water was choppy with waves and spray coming over the side. Since I was in one of the front seats, I got soaked but I had a great time.

Back on the bus we drove for an hour and half before stopping behind a very long line of traffice. Tung explained that one of the roads to the city of Can Tho was under construction so all traffic was funneled into one road thereby causing an epic traffic jam. We had two options – 1) stay with the bus and take an extra 3 hours to arrive in the city or 2) walk ¼ of a mile to a ferry, take the ferry across the river and then take a motorcycle rickshaw to the hotel. We voted for the walking/ferry/rickshaw option.

Our got our luggage and walked past many small shops where the occupants stared at us in stupefaction. We arrived at the ferry with about 1/3 of the population of Vietnam – all of whom were on scooters. The cacophony of honking horns and the smell of the streets was overwhelming. We waited a few minutes at the terminal being crowded by the scooters and then were finally allowed to board the ferry. There was a mad rush of pedestrians and scooters and the scooters won. We managed to get the entire group safely on the ferry and enjoyed the 15 minute crossing. Once on the other side, there was another contest between scooter and man that we survived. Once clear of the ferry area, Tung secured motorcycle rickshaws for us. It was so cool. I got the privilege of sitting up high behind the driver (although with my back to him) and got a great view of everything. We had a speed demon for a driver and zoomed through the streets – a parade of Americans careening through the streets at a high rate of speed. It was so much fun! I had a big goofy grin on my face. We all agreed that the ride was one of the highlights of the trip.

We arrived at the hotel much too soon and we were safely deposited on the hotel steps. We paid the drivers and soon got our keys to our rooms. I totally scored and got a single room rather than having to share. Once I figured out the air conditioner with the help of the hotel staff, I jumped into the shower with a groan of relief. It felt so good.

At 7:00 we all met in the lobby and walked to the restaurant which was only a block away. The food was excellent. It started with a tomato soup that definitely didn’t come out of a Campbell’s can. We enjoyed the food and each other’s company until we were beyond full. A quick walk back to the hotel and the adults retreated to their rooms while the students did lord knows what. I took yet another shower – the third for the day. After crawling into bed I watched a variety of channels on television; a game show, a Vietnamese soap opera, a Chinese historical soap opera that was dubbed, BBC news, CNN, and HBO. It was fascinating and quite the channel surfing opportunity but I finally had enough and went to bed.