This was the Mekong as we’d never seen it before. The wooden houses of Laos and Cambodia gave way to corrugated iron – leaning tipsily over littered waterways, little homes practically stood on each other’s shoulders – life in the Mekong fast lane. No space -a higgeldy-piggeldy sprawl of habitation, jetties, landing stages, stilted houses, plant-pots, caged song birds and clothes hanging out to dry. We could feel the difference. A buzz in the air. A constant coming and going. Boats of all shapes and sizes. Dredgers. Wooden row boats – local ferries taking people to the opposite bank.

A Sea Of Water Hyacinth. In the Delta they row standing up – crossing the oars in front of their chests, working out like they’re in training for the olympics. Huge barges, lying low in the water, laden with rice and fruit. Men lolling on their loads, nearly all with a cigarette hanging from the corner of their mouths. Women held up and waved children’s hands and shouted hello. Men and women swung in hammocks in the shaded cabins of houseboats, or washed themselves and their clothes in a steady stream of bilge water on a tiny shelf hanging out at the back, sometimes hauling cappucino-coloured Mekong water up in a bucket.

From narrow wooden boats men threw nets, or lowered giant nets fixed to bamboo poles. Fully clothed, they immersed themselves in the water, sometimes only head and shoulders visible. Tiny silver fish jumped and flopped, trapped in gauze, breathing their last. Unloading barges, thin, muscular men, their chests glistening with sweat, threw sacks casually over their shoulders and trotted over wobbling gangplanks – precarious strips of wood, placed at alarming angles to the river bank. And from the prow of every boat, Mekong eyes glared out at us.

If the waterways are a blaze of activity, the back-roads are a lazy dream. Shaded, leafy, lovely. Small winding paths, bicycles and fruit in abundance. Local life. The ice vendor. The feather duster salesman. Women in conical hats pushing hand-carts laden with vegetables and meat. The waterways become smaller. We cycled under great clumps of bananas, dangling jackfruits bigger than footballs and small red bell-shaped apple-like fruits that decorated the foliage like Christmas trees. We pedalled alongside tiny sage-green waterways moody with overhanging trees and dark inpenetrable looking places; and over tiny arched concrete bridges. We passed Catholic churches and almost Mediterranean-looking houses, coloured in pastel shades, with cool tiled interiors; people eating on straw mats outside, using their fingers as spoons to bring the contents of their bowls to their mouths. “It’s beyond lush”, said Jim, “it’s lusher than lush”.

When we were too hot to cycle further, we stopped to sip on sweet sugar-cane juice – poured over an iceberg of ice crammed into long glasses or asked for ‘cafe sua da’ – dark velvety coffee drips, drop by drop, ever so slowly, through a filter, onto a thick layer of almost beige-coloured creamy sweet milk. It’s a drink that requires patience. In a tall glass nearby jagged chunks of ice melt slowly, awaiting the cascade of coffee. Coffee on the rocks – rich, thick, incredibly sweet – the colour of caramel – wonderful. At these stops we met locals who offered us chunks of fruit and were hell bent on talking to us even though they could muster only a few words of English. No matter, smiles are universal.

The Mekong Delta was a great way to – almost – end our encounter with the Mekong – at last the Mekong bursting with life, local colour and abundance. For so much of our journey it was wild, or inaccessable and remote – beautiful but distant. Here the Mekong showed a different face and we loved it.

I admit that it’s probably not everyone’s idea of the ideal asian holiday. My travel adventures usually involve a 23 hour plane trip to somewhere in Europe, so this will be my first taste of Asia. I like the odd asian take-away, so from a culinary perspective, the trip should be a dream (if not a little spicy).

Lazing on a beautiful beach in Bali probably appeals more to most people’s imagination when it comes to aisa; maybe even sacrifice a few days of sun and surf for some local cultural stimulation. Well, that’s never really been for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love emerging myself in the culture of different countries, it’s just that I don’t like my culture crawling with tourists. Robyn and I were always snobs like that.

Right about now I guess you’re thinking that this Aussie bloke has finally flipped. Why would anyone in their right mind actually CYCLE the length oif Vietnam when one could just as easily take a more relaxing bus tour or luxury boat trip down the Mekong Delta? Answer … because the cycling tour is there to do – somebody’s got to do it!

As the itinerary mostly stays clear of the main cities and larger towns, I have no idea how often I will be in a situation to publish a blog but watch out for them anyway.

Ciao for now.

The Mekong was a really pleasant surprise and the kids both actually ate the local food (elephant ear fish and spring-rolls we made ourselves at the table) but we have all burnt out on riding the buses to see the sights (about 4.5 hours return today). Also, the weather at the beach (and here in the city as well) calls for rain the next few days so we have decided to punt on the beach which is a big disappointment for Carolyn most of all. Instead we’ll do Saigon/HCMC to death and hit all of the sights around here, sleep in late, and move slowly for the next few days.

A couple of factoids until I can post some pictures; The average salary in HCMC is about $2700/year USD. In Hanoi its about $2200/yr. To buy arable (farm-able) land in the mekong it costs about $300 per square meter so anyone wanting to start a farm these days has to be pretty well off.

Mosquitoes in the delta were almost totally absent ( I think I saw 2 last night). It never ceases to amaze me that southern Ontario where I grew up has more, and more aggressive, mosquitoes than places like the Mekong, Brazil, equatorial africa and anywhere else I have ever been. Then again, until EEE came along the mosquitoes in MA and Ontario didn’t carry any nasty diseases either so that does tend to balance things out quite a lot. From what Alex and the guys who did the helicopter surveying all over the world have said, the worst places of all for these nasty little pests is up near the arctic circle in summer.

Hopefully we’ll be able to post some pics again tomorrow

We’re off on our Mekong River cruise today and it began by bus south towards Bến Tre which is one of the country’s southern provinces situated in the delta of the Mekong River.

The Mekong Delta is where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries. The Mekong delta region encompasses a large portion of southeastern Vietnam of 39,000 square kilometres. The Mekong Delta, as a region, lies immediately to the west of Ho Chi Minh City, roughly forming a triangle stretching from Mỹ Tho in the east to Châu Đốc and Hà Tiên in the northwest, down to Cà Mau and the South China Sea at the southernmost tip of Vietnam.

We are heading for Châu Đốc later on today where hopefully another boat will take us across the border into Cambodia in the morning.

We hopped aboard a small boat at Tiền Giang Province and began to sail across the wide Mekong River and head for Phoenix Island. In the distance we can see the impressive Rach Mieu Bridge which was built in 2002.

The water is murky and sandy looking as we cut across to the jetty on Phoenix island up ahead and we soon bounced off onto the makeshift wooden jetty and led into the jungle and into the unknown.

A few minutes later we arrive at a Coconut factory which was basically a large bamboo structure where coconut candy’s and products are made. The tour guide explains a little about the process of shredding the coconuts, extracting pulp, squeezing of the pulp, extracting the oils and then finally the cooking process which turns it into a brown gooey toffee like substance.

The smells are lovely due to the coconut oils being boiled up on the stove just yards away from where we stand. We are shown to the production table where a group of ladies have emptied the toffee onto a bench and proceed to cool and cut the toffee into small squares. Younger girls help to wrap the small portions in edible rice paper and then coloured wrappers.

Its pretty a basic production line and we got to sample the different flavours of coconut candy at the end of the demonstration.

Theres peanut, chocholate, lemon and also just plain flavoured sweets for us to taste an I really liked to Peanut whereas Jill Rach Mieu Bridgepreferred the Plain.

Theres also Coconut alcohol for us to try along with coconut biscuits and in the shop nearby theres hand carved coconut shells made into a range of stuff like chopsticks, ashtrays, ornaments and jewelery. Tourist heaven!
Time to leave now we both agree as the place is turning us coco loco so we headed off through the jungle once more in the opposite direction from where we landed.

Another hundred or so yards through the mangroves and thick bushes we arrive at a small road where we jump onto the back of horse drawn carriages which cart us a mile across to the other side of the Island. There another boat was waiting to take us to yet another island further along the River.

The next Island is our Lunch stop which was a sub standard cafe where the food was pretty basic. On offer was rice, chicken and pork which were cooked fine but full of bones but it did however fill us up a little and did the job for now.
We’ve walked across a wooden Monkey Bridge and past the Crocodile pit. The pit is where you can pay to feed the crocs meat attached to a line on the end of a stick which looks wrong on many levels. The crocs looked pretty evil as people were teasing them with little bits of meat by resting the bait on the crocs nose and lifting it up just as the croc snaps at it.

Along the path from here we’re shown into a seating area under some palm trees where we are told to sit down to experience some healthy tea.

Mekong tea consists of honey, lime, tean and bee’s pollen and its a murky yellow concoction thats a struggle to lift to your lips but after downing the first glass i guarentee youll be back for more. When mixed the ingredients together ourselves with much ease and we got stuck in to the point we finished off a second pot. The bee’s polled is meant to prolong life and give you a sense of wellbeing and to be fair we felt great after a third teapot full!
We’re ushered along to the river bank once more, and yes youve guessed it, another boat trip!
We’ve to jump aboard little tiny little paddle boats with two old ladies paddling at each end who paddle us through the thick mangroves and jungle via the narrow waterways. Its quite nice sitting here with our hats on taking in the scenery of thick jungle and every so often villagers little wooden houses appear out of nowhere as we merrily float by. The two ladies are experts at getting us past other boats coming the other way and they move us swiftly through past under the thick overhanging branches.

At the end of the paddle boat tour we hopped off near a school and get seated inside a large shelter which was busy with school children and tourists. We are treated to some fresh fruit while the teachers sang traditional Vietnamese songs to the children and it was ear burning stuff i can tell you!
All that remains for us to do is get back ashore to the mainland across the other side of the river where we catch our bus to Chau Doc in the North.

We’ve to change bus at the station and to our horror we’ve to board a minibus full of locals and children who have left us two small seats up the back.

I point blank refused to get in to begin with as the vehicle looked like a death trap plus theres no seatbelts and we’re a couple of people too many. Everyone moved around to try and please us and with much persuasion and reassurances we got more spacious seats at the front. I wouldnt have a made such a fuss but we’ve paid good money for this bus and its a 6 hour haul up to the Northern part of the Mekong Delta to Chau Doc.

The worst 6 hours of my life followed and being dropped off in Chau Doc felt like a liberation more than anything.
We at last arrive at our skanky little hostel that the tour company has arranged on for us. No windows, no aircon and only slats in the concrete wall for the air to blow through.

I was eaten alive throughout the night and my thoughts are anything but wanting to be home in my own bed albeit just for a few hours. I wish I was as smart as Jill as she slept inside her sleeping bag liner with her clothes. Thanks for the heads up Jill.

Monday 7th March

6am and we’re gingerly making our way into the breakfast room for some breakie which turned out to be tea, half a baguette and jam! Christ Almighty!

Don’t get me wrong we’re doing fine at this point and we keep our spirits up by jokingly making fun of the braille like bite marks on my face, neck and head. What a bloody shape i’m in! [:0]

Theres around twelve of us now walking along the road in Chau Doc being followed by a poor local on his bycycle tuk tuk carrying all the bags. Its around half a mile before we reach the Rivers edge where our small boat awaits. We are informed that it will take us six hours o sail tup the Mekong and into Cambodia and arrived at Phnom Penh.
After sailing past many fishing huts and residential floating barges on the way out of Chau Doc, we stop. We’ve pulled into a large Barge and shown around a typical floating Fish Farm. Theres a large tank with around a hundred thousand fish inside it sitting under the barge and as the guide pours feed into the tank theres pandemonium as the fish all fight for the food. The two old men here are sitting smoking probably press!wondering what the fuss is all about as every one takes it in turns to feed the thousands of fish. Jill and I play around with the cute little dogs they have here and wonder if the dogs ever gets taken for a walk or do they just sit on the floating barge all day?

From here we sail past residentail boats and onto land where we walk through farmland over Monkey bridges and towards a Mekong village where children are playing and men are building houses. Theres the usual shop selling linen, handcrafts and silks and we stood and listened to the guide tellin us about the different heights of floods they have had through the years here. Theres a marker on the wooden post which was almost three meters off the ground which indicates the high flood mark and the lower mark. No wonder the houses are all built on stilts!

Back on the boat we got comfortable for the long sail ahead and we managed to get some sleep along the way and every so often we’d look up at the surroundings which was pretty in places.

We sail past peoples floating houses where children play in the water along side mothers washing clothes. The scenery comes as goes as we feel hemmed in at parts due to the overgrowth encroaching the river banks.
Sometimes theres a clump of residential shacks by the riverside which have lots of rubbish and plastic lying around nearby as they don’t really care much for recycling anywhere in Vietnam.

We left this narrow section of the river and joined a much wider part where the scenery has changed alot and its now mainly fields of farmland and open areas of rolling hillside. The river gets much wider to the point it felt like we were sailing down the middle of a large lake so I got up and sat on the bow of the ship for a hour just to get away from the loud engine which was growling loudly under our seats.

We stopped at the border for visa control and had lunch while we waited for our passports to be returned which took well over hour and half to be processed.

Back on the boat we are now firmly sailing on Cambodian waters and we are constantly being waved at by locals working along the riverbanks. Children with big large welcoming smiles greet us as we get close to the edge and its a chance for the younger ones to show off their diving skills as we sail by. We applaud the divers and wave to the nice Cambodians and already we are beginning to like this country and we’re haven’t even touched soil yet!

The Boat slows down considerably and we dock into a makeshift pier along side some shanty village where wild dogs and chickens run amok. Shy children are hiding behind trees as the older and more curious ones stand and stare with broad smiles as we, one by one, hope off the boat.

Twelve of us are now rammed into a fourteen seater bus along with our luggage and we endure a topsy turvey minibus ride for a hour into the Capitol of Cambodia, Phenom Penh.
By the time we get into the city its already getting dark and we’ve paid over the odds for a tuk tuk driver just to take us to our hotel safely on the other side of town.

Our Tuk tuk Driver is a nice chap called Narith who’s Cambodian and offers his services for the next two days at a great price which we gladly agreed with as it saves us getting something else organised later.
Our hotel is call the Feeling Well hotel, with a name like that we couldn’t go wrong and we weren’t disappointed as we checked in as its lovely.

The usual unpacking of bags was followed by dinner downstairs in the restaurant. Delicious Cambodian curry and rice was happily devoured and we are so glad to be at the end of a tough couple of days.

Narith is picking us in the morning and he’s taking us around Phenom Penh to look at some of the sights and historic areas such as the Killing Fields and S21 among other stuff.

Day 1 included: floating market (although we arrived after the action), coconut candy making (zeroing in on your fillings and doing their best to remove them! – we still have ours at the bottom of our bag), seeing how rice paper is made and then lunch at a local restuarant before arriving at the border town Can Tho.

Day 2: 5am wake up call and a knock at the door to a grumpy Tory (1hr too early!), a row boat out to the floating villages and fish farms (too many tourists nearly sank one house!), visit to a very touristy Champa village with a local old man posing in the window for photos and then a 3hr boat ride up to the border crossing.

Border crossing was simple (guards were having lunch and drinking Jack Daniels) and then off we went on a 4hr mini bus ride on some pretty bad roads to Phnom Penh.

It provided the base for visits to the Cu Chi tunnels, Mekong Delta and the War Remnants Museum before moving on to Cambodia.

Some people say that Saigon is busier than Hanoi, but as far as I can tell, Hanoi is much more closed in and not as westernised. Hanoi is my preference of the two.

On our first day in Saigon, we thought we had arrived at the War Remnants Museum because there were tanks and a fighter plane outside. We paid our entry fee and went in. Once we got in we found that we went to the wrong place… We had in fact gone to the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group Partnership Meeting lol.. We made a quick exit!

Upon eventual arrival at the actual War Renmants Museum, we finally managed to have a look round! It basically discusses the Vietnam war and documents the various eliments of it. Over three million vietnamese were killed and it lasted for over seventeen years. It started as a civil war between the north and the south but the USA got involved in support of the south.

The main war was in the south. They brought with them their weponry including napalm and phosphorous bombs, which wiped out anything and everything they came into contact with – and according to the museum, they used A LOT of them! The museum itself however was really propaganda against the USA… although they were as bad as each other, it was a war, afterall. See Cu Chi, below:

The massive Cu Chi tunnel network, about 60KM north of Saigon, were built by a gorilla outfit against the USA / and Saigon in the south. Over ten thousand people stayed in these tunnels at one time and there purpose was to allow a fight against the USA and the south, over night when they had the best chance of fighting by stelth. They made traps, which were really vicious and basically minced troops with metal spikes when they fell through them. They had their own under ground medical centres and living quarters and they plotted there tactics from them. They had to build and use tunnels because as soon as they went outside, they would be bombed. They needed to operate secretly and were lucky the Americans never found them.

Some of the tunnels stretch as far as the Cambodian border. I also had a go on an AK47… so now I can say I fired a machine gun in an old war zone in Naaaam

A tea and coffee cultural week opened in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on January 14.

It aims to facilitate nationwide enterprises in exchanging and promoting their products as well as to meet demand of customers on the threshold of the Lunar New Year.
During the week, various products including electric and telecommunications products, interior decoration, office equipment, cosmetics, clothes and consumer goods will also be on show.
(Source: VNA)

In the early hours, boats of all different sizes make their way to Cai Rang on the river to sell and buy farm produce and whatever products they have to offer. An earlier arrival at the thriving market ensures more space for tourist boats to maneuver in the crowded market and, of course, more things to look at.

Arriving at Cai Rang before 7 a.m. or a little later is a good idea to explore the market, as after that tourist boats flock there in droves, making it noisier and narrower for boats to move forward. Photographers can hardly take a steady shot because of the wake from boats running up and down the river.

Many big boats are also houses on which families live. A crowd of tourist boats makes locals feel too uncomfortable to carry out their normal activities, especially children who are camera shy so they dare not even wave their hands to greet visitors as they usually did before the market attracted so many sightseers.

As Cai Rang is about eight kilometers from the Mekong Delta city, a boat trip from Ninh Kieu Wharf takes some 30 minutes or more. Again, you should bear in mind that the earlier you come to the floating market, the better you can travel around to see everything close up.

Owners of small boats can make their way to every corner of the 300-year-old market so you can see and even touch the produce and merchandise, watch all the bargaining and learn how this market goes.

A common scene is the farmers taking their bananas, pomelos, oranges, water melons, sweet potatoes, pumpkins and other farm produce to Cai Rang for sale to wholesalers. Smaller boats load up with tomatoes, vegetables, cucumber, pork, fish, soft drinks, noodle soup and the other necessities of life to sell to the families whose boats are their homes.

To attract wholesalers on the larger boats, the vendors tie samples of what they sell onto tall poles so that the buyers can see. The wholesalers buy up big and distribute the produce around the region and the country.There’s lots of busy selling and buying going on at the market from the time when the sun rises until 10 a.m. Visitors can take part in the busy commerce as owners of smaller boats often approach tourist boats to sell fruit and other specialties of the Mekong Delta region.

A number of brokers usually ask tourists to book a morning trip to the market while they are walking in Ninh Kieu Wharf, but bookings should be made at the travel firms in Can Tho City. These companies offer packages of a half day or a day taking in the floating market and the villages where locals make hu tieu instant noodles and rice vermicelli.

More information:

Victoria Can Tho Resort organizes a four-hour sunrise breakfast cruise on its Lady Hau to the floating market and other places of interest by traditional sampans. This wooden boat departs from the hotel’s jetty at 6:30 in the morning and guests are served with breakfast of international dishes and Vietnamese specialties on board.

The Lady Hau also leaves the hotel for a sunset cruise, with special cocktails and snacks served on board.

From HCMC, I cross 51 kilometers on National Highway 1A heading to Tan An City in the Mekong Delta province of Long An. From the post office in the city center, I turn left heading to the Moc Hoa Border Gate to visit a cajuput forest which is considered the largest lung of the province and an artificial mountain called Nui Dat. The clean path to the forest runs alongside a stream.

If on the national highway, vehicles hustle together on each centimeter, the path heading to the forest seem to be another world, spacious, clean and quite with a few of motorbikes. Upon reaching more 30 kilometers of the path, I start to get lost as I feel relaxed in extremes with shade of cajuput on my head, sweet favor of cajuput flowers in my nose and whisper of streams along the path on my ears.

After filling my lungs with fresh air and wild fragrances, I move on to Nui Dat, the artificial mountain built in 1957-1960. The mountain includes three islands; the first one is place of two small mounts which are high 10 meters surrounded by green trees while the second island is linked with the first one by a bridge. The third one boasts its beauty with seasoned bodhi trees and rock-garden. Not serving tourists as an entertainment place, Nui Dat look like a small park, bringing travelers stillness and cool air.

I leave Nui Dat for the romantic Lang Sen, a spacious site with gentle canals and cajuput and lotus trees.

The site is also home to many kinds of fish, birds, snakes and turtles and local authorities are planning to develop the area into an eco-tourism site.

Moc Hoa is recommended for those who love peace and stillness and the beauty and primitiveness of nature.

On the way to Bay Nui, especially from Tinh Bien to Tri Ton districts, the sight of thousands of palmyra trees reaching straight up to the sky is a dazzling sight.

It takes from 30 to 40 years for palmyra palms to grow to their full height of 20m. The fruit is sweet and succulent and is a popular mainstay in the mountain areas. It is also a source of income for local farmers.

Every morning, as the golden rays of dawn shine through the early mist, local vendors load their poles on their shoulders and head to popular tourist destinations such as Lam Vien Tourist Park in Cam (forbidden) Mountain to sell the palmyra fruit. For just a few thousands of dong travelers can enjoy the sweet and fragrant mountainous fruits.

Palmyra has many uses; it can be frozen and sold as a refreshing soft drink, fermented with wild plants and made into palmyra beer and made into a sugar which is used in a sweet soup. Palmyra fruits are also mixed with water and made into soft, crispy rice which is served with sugar and ice.

There are many more tasty dishes made from this versatile fruit, including palmyra candy, palmyra jelly and palmyra cake which is made from sticky rice mixed with palmyra rice. The sticky rice is fermented and stored for a year before being mixed with the palmyra rice, wrapped in banana leaves and steamed for an hour. The resulting cake has a sweet fragrance and dark yellow color.

Palmyra is enjoyed in all its forms by tourists to Bay Nui.