A Morning on the Mekong

Our next stop was the Mekong Delta.  Travellers are drawn to this region partly by the mystique that this famed river holds (it’s the 12th longest river in the world and passes through six countries – China, where it starts, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam), but also for its expansive, quiet (mostly) rural existence supported mostly by agriculture and fishing.

We arranged accommodations ahead of time in two towns/locales in the delta.  The first was a small town, Can Tho, where we stayed for only one night - just long enough to wander the streets for a part of a day and to see the main attraction, the famous floating market where growers, middle men and buyers sell fruits and vegetables.  Unlike the floating villages on Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia, where the villages are built on stilts, the floating markets in the Mekong Delta (there are many of them) are truly floating.  Fruits and vegetables are sold from boats that gather into a market setting in the middle of the river's channel.  The Mekong Delta is so large and has so many channels that the main channels have been given their own names.  We hired a boat and English speaking guide (Ann) to take us on a tour of the market.  She greeted us at our hotel, dark and early the next morning, at 6:15, much to the kids’ chagrin.

We walked with Ann to the river in total darkness, boarded our small longboat and  then watched the sun rise over the river as we motored toward the market - no lights, no life jackets, no worries according to the locals. 


Daylight was just peeking through as we started off

Along the way, Ann explained that this was a wholesale market so there would mostly be large boats there selling big volumes of their products.  Some small boats would be there buying things and also selling noodles and coffee to the tourists.  The market wasn't as bustling as it is some days because there was a holiday that week, but it was still a neat experience to see the big boats loaded with types of produce parked in the water waiting for sales.  They showed what they were selling by hanging it off a pole high up at the front of the boat.  Our guide said people live on the boats and would stay at that market spot until all of the goods on their boat were sold, sometimes for several days.


This boat is selling a wide variety of items - see the selection on the pole

Color on the Mekong

fresh tomatoes for sale

Many boats had eyes painted on, we were told that it is bad luck to point at the eyes

We toured around for awhile then stopped to buy a bowl of noodles from a woman with a little noodle boat cafe.



A nice bowl of steaming noodles starts the day off right!

After the market we went to a rice noodle factory to see how rice is ground down, made into a slurry by adding water, cooked on silk over heat to form the papers, then dried in the sun.  Once dried, the large rice papers are put through a hand turned machine which cuts them into noodle strips.  It was a beautiful process to see with steam rising in the morning sun and the workers chatting happily to each other.  It was interesting to learn that the drying time depended strictly on the weather, so some days noodles are dried in a few hours, and on wet days no noodles are dried at all.


Maya checking out the rice slurry

Skillfully pouring a scoop of slurry onto the silk to cook over the fire



taking it off when it is cooked to perfection


Laying it on the bamboo mats for drying

Rice papers drying in the sun


Papers dried and ready to cut

The kids cutting rice paper into noodles

We went back home through some small canals which seem to be the heart of the delta. There seemed to be dozens of small canals, mostly lined with simple homes and most with a small wooden boat out front which the family uses to fish with and to get around.  These families have much less use for cars - the rivers are their roadways and the boats are their vehicles and their livelihood.  Some poorer families live in their small boats on the river, or in small shacks along the river where they can never own the land like those who live across the street from the river do.


A boy harvesting water hyacinth - Ann told us that when she was young, after the war, her family was
very poor and they had to gather water hyacinth to eat - this boy might be harvesting it for his family or for
their livestock

A couple out fishing for food

A home complete with a fishing net system in the front

Working on his daily catch


A family would live in this boat, and others in the makeshift homes on the river bank

It was an interesting morning spent with our guide learning about life on the Mekong River.

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