I jumped on the bus bound for a 3 day boat tour of the Mekong delta and bump into two girls from Singapore (Lin and Shan) that had also been on the bus with me from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh.
Together we moved up the Mekong river to the Vietnamese border town of Chau Doc. We had a beautiful tour guide who was kind enough to give us some lessons in Vietnamese language. She had a hard time with me and was kind enough to let me know that I was a terrible student!
The evening was spent sipping sugar cane juice at the pier and munching delicious Chinese cuisine in a cabbage leaf littered alley way.
Along the delta banks the next day by boat we saw strategically build stilt houses trembling on their wooden legs. Water buffalo farmers fed their stock while wading in the waters, fishermen hauled their bounty in,
large racks held stretched out vibrant orange strips of drying fish and local children frolicked and swam about in the muddy flow. We docked for a bit to visit the nearby village. One main road ran parallel to the river and was lined with big leafy banana plants and coconut palms.
Muslim children were out from school, and gorgeous little girls were selling banana coconut waffles. Not their sweet little faces nor their treats could I turn down.
In one building a young woman sat at a loom weaving exquisite silk scarves and garments
and in another, rice noodles were being steamed and hung out to dry in the sunshine.
We arrived at our home stay family at lunch time and were warmly greeted by Phoung – a 27 years old and studying English and teaching, and his mother who spoke no english. Served to us was hot pork noodles and fragrant bananas. The village consisted of about 21 families nestled between the bends and folds of the river and the rice paddies. 5 dogs roamed around the home, fruit trees were heavy with oranges and bananas and hammocks swayed in the breeze.
My room was a small bamboo hut with a leafy thatched roof. Inside was a firm metal bed draped with a mosquito net. As I entered the room a great big black beetle scrambled out from behind the curtain and flew straight into my face and a giant spider became visible on the wall. You can imagine how anxious I was feeling about the sun going down!
We explored the surroundings and mastered the art of crossing monkey bridges, which consist of a single beam to walk on and a single beam to hold on to!
The rice fields were being worked by hunched over men and women in Vietnamese hats, and hummed with a million dragonflies.
The mother created a banquet of pork, tofu, fish, eggplant, rice and rice crackers, and after devouring that, we moved into the garden for fresh pineapple and green tea to watch the sun go down. It was so nice to spend time in a traditional setting and get to know and relax with the people there. We even managed to watch Miss Mekong Delta beauty pagent and communicate with the Mum who she thought was beautiful and who wasn’t! It was a real laugh, and I think they really enjoyed the experience too.
At 7am we said our goodbyes and took the boat via the floating markets to the bus that transported us to Ho Chi Minh City.
