Mekong Delta

Another trip, another 75+ photo post. Sit down and strap in.

The travel agency I used is right next to a cafe with a wonderful mural and I stopped for coffee while I waited 45 minutes for my tour bus. There is a very loose interpretation of schedules maintained, so when they say "be there at 7:30" they mean "we'll pick you up around or after 8." The bus drove about an hour and a half south to the Mekong River where we boarded a wooden boat to travel between several small islands.



It was impossible to get pictures of the rice fields we passed through. Blurry streaks, every one of them. Scattered along the intersecting raised borders were sarcophagi, sometimes only two or three, occasionally a small cemetery. I learned that Joe Jackson is building a theme park, HappyLand, amongst the rice paddies? Okay? Oh wait, was building.

The delta is the end of a long line through six countries, which is why many areas, like the beach in my other post, are so heavily polluted. Everything that floats downriver collects here.

fancy tour model

common transport (my) model

The tour guide said all the boats in the Mekong have those eyes painted on them because from underneath the boat looks like a large animal which frightens away crocodiles. He followed this with the exception that all the crocodiles have been hunted for food and there aren't any anymore. Good story, man.

Dragon Island

Unicorn Island

First destination: Unicorn Island. We sat under grass-thatched picnic areas and sampled tea with local honey, limes, and bee pollen. I didn't get a picture of the dark banana wine, which was deeply alcoholic and tropical tasting. Everything edible was for sale, including the banana chips, candied ginger, peanut candies, and small pots of royal jelly.

This was a well organized tour for the Unabashed Tourist, with many staged photo-ops. We passed around a slat of honeycomb that was crawling with bees and then a python. I don't know why there was a python, but look! A python!!

I guess I was overextending my turn

baby nans!

Oh man, then we split up into groups of four for a tiny cruise down a stream. They thoughtfully provided traditional hats for us to look like stupid tourists in. That was a poorly structured sentence.

Everybody has the same picture

Wheee! 

This was very relaxing and too, too short. I could have floated like this for hours.

So, yeah, very structured. There were lines of tourists everywhere along the banks, so much so, that at times it felt like an amusement park, which I guess is not too far a leap. Shuffle in, shuffle out.

A crazy traffic jam of row boats. We just pushed our way through. Watch your fingers.

sidewalk

A short walk to another thatched area where we had fruit and a really delicious tea with some musical accompaniment. Pineapple with chili salt, papaya, bananas, dragon fruit, and sapodilla, which I had for the first time about a week ago. It's got an interesting flavor, almost savory and sweetly tropical. Reminds me of persimmon without the tannins.

On the way there, the guide kept talking about how we would hear "fox songs" and I'm all, whoa, what is this going to be? Um, he said folksongs, dummy. In the countryside there is night music: dogs can't sleep and bark, babies can't sleep and chime in, horses braying; he made a bunch of other comparisons and sounds, which were probably dirty.

I don't know what to say about this terrible picture other than that there were these floating metal houses that I think are where fishermen live. Ascetic, to say the least.

Big Sky Country

Another island for lunch. We had a small set meal, but were able to order more if we wanted to at exorbitant rates. Snake, crocodile, and coconut worms were specialties, but when another guy and I tried to order the worms they said they'd run out, leaving us disappointed, yet slightly relieved. Booooooo, you're ruining my adventure.

I'm not sure what this contraption is about - the guide said men go up the towers daily to pray for lasting peace between the North and South.

The lunch island complex had small footbridges leading to various eating establishments, an optimistically named Crocodile Farm, and hammocky lounge area.

A slightly sturdier bridge

Oy, this was painful

My cat sleeps like this

Fifty cents is a good price to swing and discuss Life with strangers

Jackfruit, I think. Not stinky enough to be durian. These dudes were everywhere.

Off to coconut candy island. "This way, my family" is how we were herded by our guide. He demonstrated, rather frighteningly, how not to safely handle a coconut hopper and grinder. Everything is used: the husks are fertilizer and mattress filler, the oil is pressed, and here the milk is used for candy. It's boiled with sticky rice and the liquid is skimmed off to mix in this thing. There's a fire going beneath the bowl, cooking the mixture.

When it has reduced and thickened enough, the candy gets treated like fudge: spread and flipped and kneaded with that red plate until it has cooled enough to slice. Flavorings get added at this point, like pandan juice, durian, peanuts, cocoa powder. The slices are pressed into bars and then cut and wrapped by hand.

I don't know. I'm sure I could have bought a ladleful if I had wanted.

chickens

Buggy ride? Sure. A short, five-minute ride through an old village and back to our boat.

These were the type of pictures I was getting so I gave up and held on.

I felt kind of bad for all the animals we saw. He seemed to be tied up here for pictures, but maybe not?

Somebody braided some of the free-floating roots

These tours are interesting for meeting people. Everybody groups up, which is great for me since there tend to be a lot of young lone travelers, but these are one-day friends as they all are only passing through. I'm often the only American, which, I don't know if that means southeast Asia isn't a destination for Americans or what, but I get some questions about history re Vietnam/American War, to which I say, "Hey, Australians. Les Français. How about your input." I'm not actually this defensive since I know why they ask :)

At the time, I couldn't mentally handle posting about my first city tour and early solo excursions, so there will be some time-traveling for the next few entries.

***

The rainy season has begun. There is a regular deluge beginning around 4-5pm of varying duration and intensity, so my days often end in the early evening. "It was a dark and stormy night" is how a lot of bad stories begin, except A Wrinkle in Time, which still holds up. You should read it.