Mekong Delta
On Wednesday afternoon I rode to Can Tho in the Mekong River Delta
region with Dr. Hoang, a friend of Thuan's. After a five hour drive we
arrived and got some dinner before bed. On Thursday I hired a bicycle
and a local guide through a tour agency.
My guide, a young woman named Loan, spoke English well, and explained
the commerce and activity in the countryside as we pedaled along on
our bikes. We observed people drying raw rice on their tiled yards. I
also noted the way people cross the rivers; we rode across wooden,
steel, and concrete bridges, only wide enough for bikes and
motorcycles. Other bridges, made of sticks, "one foot bridges," are
simply sticks propped up that you walk on, one foot in front of the
other. The best part of the ride is the gracious, friendly "Hello!"
yelled to me in English by everyone we passed, esp. kids.. Three
little kids who said "hello" while running after us were so cute, I
had to stop and photograph them. The bike ride was about 20 km, and
lasted 5 hours. Loan took me back to her office were I gave up the
bike and said goodnight. She agreed to accompany me the next day on
the river in a boat.
On Friday, again with Loan, we hired a boat to cruise the waterways. I
observed people bringing goods down the river channels and meeting at
"floating markets" to trade. Loan stopped for breakfast from a
floating hot food vendor. I had a coffee from a floating drink vendor.
We tied up to the vendor's boat, enjoyed our food and drink while they
waited, and then returned the dishes, un-tied the boats, and moved on.
The boats are called "long tail boats" in that they have an outboard
motor, sans-muffler to everybody's auditory agony, and a propeller at
the end of a ten foot long shaft. This design helps them in shallow
water that is full of debris. I took some photos of Long and edited
them a bit, so they look old-fashioned. The boat ride ended near lunch
time, and so I said goodbye to Loan and went back to meet up with Dr.
Hoang for lunch. He was translating a public health project proposal
from English into Vietnamese. I helped him with translation for a
couple of hours, and then headed to the bus station.
The bus station is a frenzy of agents trying to fill their buses with
riders. I was pulled in every direction, but tried to focus on the
road-worthiness of the buses being presented to me, making my choice
to go on a new Mercedes Benz vehicle with comfortable looking seats.
The 5 hour trip costs $3.25. At the ferry queue, the bus stopped and
everybody got off. The driver noticed my confused look, and motioned
for me to follow the other passengers. I did, and they walked onto the
ferry, leaving the bus far behind in a very long line of buses and
trucks. Motorbikes and foot passengers walk right on without delay. I
learned the routine is to cross the ferry off of the bus; for safety
purposes, they don't want people trapped in vehicles if the ferry
sinks. On the other side, rows of cafes cater to people waiting for
their bus to catch up with them, three, four, or five ferry's later.
After a long bus ride back, I arrived in Saigon at 8:30 PM and made my
way to my hotel. At night I went out with a bunch of people in town
visiting for an HIV/AIDS prevention conference. They went to a
concert, which I missed since I was dilly-dallying at the hotel. I
caught up with them after the concert and we all went to Samsara, a
popular bar. I met some more people, an expat from San Jose who
imports garage doors to Vietnam from the US, a guy who works in
PR/advertising (for J. Walter Thompson, a WPP company, as is Landor),
a Communist Party member in the Ministry of Health, people from the
CDC and WHO, the US Embassy, and a contingent from my Hanoi posse, all
in Saigon for the HIV/AIDS prevention conference. The highlight was
seeing everybody dancing to hip-hop…not me, though…I think I'm way too
tall compared to most Vietnamese, and look silly on the dance floor. I
was comfortable watching from a large arm chair. The bar staff places
a bottle of vodka (or other tipple of your choice), plus cans of tonic
water, and limes at the table. A dedicated waiter in a leopard print
shirt and white pants stands by to constantly refill individual
glasses. At the end of the night, they note the diminished contents of
the bottle, and charge accordingly. All bars and clubs close at
midnight, so our table was only down a third of the bottle…better for
the liver.
Tomorrow I head to Hanoi on the train…a two day ride from one end of
the country to the other…