April 14 & 15 Can Tho – The Mekong River Delta

This post has a lot of pictures and some video. But this is only a small selection of all the pictures I have. Please let me know if this is too much or too little. I want to give you a flavor for the places, but not drive you crazy.

An observation on travel: One of the reasons we have never been big on cruises, is that you only spend a day or less in a place.  We wanted to spend more time in each location to get a better feel for the culture, the food and the people.  That is why we tried to schedule our trip so that we spend at least 3 days in each location.  Now we realize that even three days is not enough for some places, Hoi An being one of them.  I highly recommend a trip to Hoi An for those who want to combine a beach resort vacation with history and great food.  Spending a week would still not be enough.  (Note to EFL, Marriott is building a resort here).

Now we are off to Can Tho (pronounced Doh) the fourth largest city in Vietnam located on the banks of the Hau River in the Mekong Delta region.  Our first introduction to the area was on a bicycle ride along the river and canals.  We saw many “back road” areas and how the people live.  We sampled some local noodles that are only made here, Cathy got to try her hand at making them too.  While some of the houses look like shakes, there are quite a few that were more “modern” looking.  Although the temperature was in the mid 90’s we were comfortable in the shade and by keeping moving we created a breeze. 

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April 15^th – River Cruise and on to Saigon.

We were up early, 5:00am, to take a cruise up river to the River Market.  This is where large boats from the provinces come down river to sell their produce.  Smaller local “retailers” will come along side to purchase for sale in local markets.  Each of the larger boats will advertise what they are selling on a large pole in the front of the boat.  Since the people from the provinces will stay here until they have sold all their produce, which may take several days, there are also small boats selling things such as bread and other necessities to the people on the larger boats.

We stopped alongside a boat selling pineapple.  We boarded the boat and had a sample of their sweet fruit.  Then is was back on our boat and back to the pier and the hotel for breakfast.

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After breakfast we loaded our luggage into the car which took us to the dock for a cruise up river to stop at various shops.  The car would meet up further up river later in the day to take us to the airport for our flight to Saigon.  Our first stop on the river was at a pottery factory.  Here they make bricks for local construction, but also make pottery products such as planters for export.  One surprise was the statutes they make.  Who would have thought that here is where the Moai of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) actually come from?  I know my potters at the Craft Center would love to have a kiln the size they have here?  Though it would take days to heat.  Here they burn the husks from rice as fuel for the kilns.

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We continued up river to our next stop a sweet factory.  Here we saw how they pop rice and then add sugar to make various sweets.  They also showed us how they take the juice form ground coconuts to make coconut candies.  And then we had some tea and sampled the various items.  I am not losing any weight on this trip.

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Our next stop along the river was a nursery where they grow various fruit trees.

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Then to lunch at a home along the river.  This is set up as a little restaurant / inn.   

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After lunch Cathy helped making rice stuffed banana leaves.  The women giving her direction, we found out, not only owns the restaurant but the whole travel company, including the boats we were on.

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We continued our journey up river passing several churches.  Vietnam is primarily a Buddhist country.  Most Christians here live in the south.  This is a remnant of the split in the country, when communists took over the north many Christians moved south.

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We reached a point where the river opened up to a wide span.  Earlier we were told there are areas of the river that are over 1 ½ miles wide.  This could be one of those spots.  It reminded me of a scene from African Queen where the rain lifts the boat over the reeds into the lake.  And sure enough, as we approached the open waters there was our “Louisa”.  Though we had no intent on sinking her.  The Mekong river is among the longest in the world, flowing through five countries and this was one of the cruise ships that makes that journey.

We approached one of the smaller islands where we boarded a sampan, a small row boat to go into some of the smaller canals and waterways.  As we entered some of these the noise of the cicadas was almost defining.

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We rejoined the larger boat and completed our trip across the wide river to a town where we met up with our car and driver for the trip to Saigon.