Day 67 – Mekong Delta

Nov 3rd

Cao Dai and Markets
For our last day in Nam, Brit, Beth, Annie and I decided to explore the Mekong Delta some more. Our tour guide Cam first took us to a Cao Dai temple near Tay Ninh. Caodaism was first introduced to Vietnam in 1926, and has about 2 million followers to date. The religion is a mix of Hinduism and Buddhism to teach how to live well and Daosim to teach how to eat well. The temple was a colorful mix of various ideological structures. There were even statues of Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, a Chinese man and a Hindu together on the main shrine. I kinda liked the harmonious nature of the place. Afterward, Cam took us on a walk to a legitimate local market. There was nothing touristy about it, since we stuck out like sour thumbs, and no one really spoke English. Cam explained the various fruits, vegetable and green leaf bags that contained fermenting pork rinds. A few men asked us to take pictures of them and then with them... and they didn’t even make us pay them! It was pretty cute that they just really wanted their pictures taken. Brit, Beth and I discovered a huge pile of rotting teddy bears, I tried to convince them I would belly float them for a dollar, but no one was interested.

My Tho
The My Tho area is famous for its coconut palms and fruit (mangos, longans, bananas, citrus fruits) orchards. The 2-hour drive out of Ho Chi Minh City took us through miles of flat rice fields, along a road that was busy with bicycles and people heading to and from the market. At one auspicious spot we stopped to take pictures of the rice paddy fields and the nearby ducks splashing in the water. In order to corral us back onto the bus, Cam promised we would get to go to the “happy house” soon enough. We had no idea what she was talking about, until we pulled up to restrooms a few miles down. (It was the first time someone had planned out toilets correctly, seeing as there were three times the number of female toilets over male toilets!)

Mekong Delta
The Mekong Delta was annexed by the Khmer in the late 18th century and continues to be lively river basin to explore. When we arrived, Kim welcomed us and showed us to our long, wooden boat. She talked about the Delta life and pointed out the floating homes along the riverside. Most of the boats had eyes on the front to scare away the evil water spirits. Our first stop on the tour was to an island that had a fruit orchards where we sampled mangos, pineapples, dragon fruit and papayas over jasmine tea. A local band played music, while a young 10-year old boy sang for us. Apparently the hot tea was supposed to help us cool off from the heat, but I just felt my “swamp ass” developing even more quickly. On the way to our second island called Huong Dua, Kim and Cam passed out fresh coconuts to re-hydrate from the humidity. After you finished drinking the sweet water on the inside, they cut them open to show you the yogurt like white coconut flesh on the inside. Brit and I tasted it thinking it would be okay, and two seconds later Kim told us NOT to eat it because it acts like a laxative for foreigners. We just looked at each other in horror and shrugged it off.

Huong Dua island
At Huong Dua, we visited a coconut candy factory. It was open air and covered only by a large banana leaf roof, but it was a nice cool retreat from the sun. We watched as workers brought harvested coconuts, ground up the inside, melted in down into a milk substance and then cooled it to make a gooey yellow paste. We sampled a fresh patch to try the warm, sweet and gooey deliciousness. To wash it down, they brought out banana wine, which tasted like Bicardi 151 (not that I know what that tastes like), and snake wine. The snack wine had been marinated in dead snakes for a while (hence the name) and had a wood taste to it. I got some scales in mine, which was a little weird, but I still preferred it over the banana wine. After we felt sufficiently nauseous, we took donkey carts across the island. Along the way we saw village life, and the plethora of barber shops that cover the island. I asked Kim about this, and she explained it was the most lucrative profession on the island. On our way to the river canals, we found a place that had a python that was much MUCH bigger than me. I jumped at the chance to hold it and got some great Britney-esq pictures via her “I’m A Slave For You” era. We also sampled the most delicious honey-cumquat-tea that I plan on bottling and marketing all over the world one day. It was so delicious. They also provided us with coconut strips and coconut covered peanuts. We are all on sugar highs at that point, and the massive swarms of bees wasn’t helping. I commiserated with the other kid who was allergic to bee stings, as we wondered how far away the nearest hospital was. The boat we took there really didn’t go too fast, so we were banking on a mythical lyre to swoop down and fly us to the nearest hospital. I reassured him that I would try and suck the bee sting out (like venom) if I could, but I couldn’t make any promises. Finally, we were able to board sampans to ply down the river canals and waterways. It was wonderfully peaceful and enjoyable trip.

Lunch on Hao Al
Once back on our boat “27” we headed to yet another island Hao Al for a Khmer-Chinese lunch. I felt like I was on the National Geographic, since we discovered mud-skipper fish on the banks of the island and an enormous water buffalo lounging in the river stream next to the restaurant. Since Christina had already been, I knew before hand to make sure and say I was a vegetarian. Thus, Brit, Beth and I were able to score some delicious veggie noodles, spring rolls, veggie rice, rice pancakes and stewed carrots rather than be at the table where they brought out an enormous elephant fish completely whole and deep fried. The group of us were delirious from the heat and spent the meal mumbling to each other, hardly understanding a word anyone was saying. We savored every last bite of juicy pineapple before heading back to our boat to begin the trip back to Ho Chi Minh.

Ho Chi Minh
We got back to the center of Ho Chi Minh in the late afternoon, so Beth, Brit and I decided to check out a some boot-leg DVD shops. Brit picked out the full collection of Lost seasons for $3. I couldn’t believe how cheap (and decent quality) the movies and shows actually were. Then we headed to the supermarket to spend our last few dong on snakes for the ship. I bought some adventurous juices that I didn’t know the name of and Sun chips! It happily reminded me of home. Next we headed to an internet café for a few mins before making it back to the ship for dock time.

Highs and Lows
My “high” was drinking snake wine. My “low” was realizing we don’t have the same logical design of “happy houses” in America like they do in Cambodia.