Morning In Mekong Delta
If you are a nature lover and cultural explorer, a tour of the floating villages and markets, or the fruit gardens of the Mekong Delta is very suitable for you.
On Tuesday morning we headed out to the Mekong Delta for our one night in a local homestay. On the way there, we visited a small Cao Dai temple before boarding our boat.
Bamboo monkey bridge - a symbol of the Southwest
The first day of the tour
The boats in the Mekong region are painted with two eyes in the front–supposedly to ward off crocodiles. We stopped at Mr. Kiet’s Historic House for lunch–fried elephant ear fish! Very scary looking, but quite tasty. After lunch, we visited some cottage industries that produced local specialties like coconut candy, banana pancakes, and popped rice. We had a chance to try each one, and I bought some of them as gifts for my family at a relatively reasonable price. Also, the fruit gardens of coconut, rambutan, mango, or dragon fruit were very enjoyable.
The crocodile farm in Mekong Delta
The afternoon concluded with rowboat tours of some of the back channels of the delta. Sometimes, we met a solitary roof reflecting on the river surface, in the midst of the afternoon sunlight, or the happy face of the local children on the fields, etc. We arrived at our homestay around 4.30 PM, giving us two hours to chill in the hammocks before dinner preparations, which started with making our own fresh spring rolls. After a delicious dinner (spring rolls, prawns, more elephant ear fish, and fried pork), it was another hour or so in the hammocks before an early bedtime.
The second day of the tour
Where the coconut candies are made
We got up by 6.30 AM the next morning to take a brief stroll around the local markets. Very authentic experience–no tourist baubles for sale here. Instead, live fish, live chickens, many types of eggs, and all varieties of fruits and vegetables. A final meal of noodle soup for breakfast before bidding adieu to our host family and heading back up the Mekong to a crocodile farm, or “Roc-o-dire,” as our guide calls them. Hundreds of crocodiles, lounging in the sun, snapping at the slightest provocation, blissfully unaware of their futures as food and shoes. Feeding the crocodiles brought tourists at the farm a cheerful laugh as all the life blues were washed away.
We also caught the tail end of the floating market before getting back to our bus and going back North to Saigon. We arrived back early enough for me to visit the one major thing I wanted to do in Saigon but hadn’t yet had a chance to, the Revolutionary Palace. Formerly the home of the South Vietnamese government, its fall heralded the official end of the Vietnamese War in 1975. Much of it has been left exactly as it was in that time, truly capturing history in a bottle. The next day, we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels and I went to the Holy See of Cao Dai, as detailed in the next blog entries. I hope we have a trip to the Mekong River in Cambodia next time.
Enjoying the breakfast on Mekong Delta floating markets
Tours in the Mekong Delta with interesting itineraries and local specialties will definitely make you satisfied and overwhelmed at the unique characteristics and the hospital, rustic people. If you like the place, don’t hesitate to like and share the article with your beloved ones to plan a wonderful trip here. Feel free to contact us for further information. Thank you.
