Mekong Delta

Good morning,

As I mentioned in my last e-mail, I spent a couple of
days in the Mekong Delta, travelling by boat and bus
to see some beautiful countryside and lots of lush
agricultural area ;) Our first day we drove to My Tho
which is the gateway to the Mekong Delta. We boarded
a boat and toured the Cai Be floating markets, watched
people making rice paper, coconut candy, cycled
through a small village and then floated along small
river canals through other villages. We then
transfered to a larger boat which took us to Can Tho
where we spent the night.

The next day, we woke early and went to Cai Rang
floating market which is the biggest in the Mekong
region. We paddled around in small boats and checked
out the action - it was much better than the market
the day previous - more commerce and a greater variety
of produce. From there, we visited a rice husking
mill and a rice noodle making shop. On the way back,
we stopped in a small village and I attempted to play
a cross between checkers and chess with a local boy
who didn't speak a word of English. He was winning
but I'd knocked off a couple of his pieces when we
left ;) From there, we took a bus and boat to Chau
Doc which is where I got my $5 USD sunset. It really
was fantastic but you'll all have to wait until later
to see the pictures ;) Chau Doc is located on the
border between Vietnam and Cambodia.

The next day, we climbed Sam mountain, actually more
of a hill, for a view of the Mekong and the beautiful
scenery and rice paddies by the Cambodian border.
From there we boarded very small canoe-sized boats
with rowers and rowed around a floating village,
checking out floating fisheries, a minority village
and some temples. The trip back to Saigon was long
but broken up by method of transport, we went boat,
bus, boat, bus. All in, it was about 10 hours back
along pretty countryside. Unfortunately, I don't have
any pictures of the trip back as my batteries died.
I've exchanged e-mail addresses with two people I met
so hopefully I can get some of their photos.

I've been checking out war related historical events
and they are much more somber than the Mekong so I'll
write about them at a later time.

Hope all is well with everyone.
Sarah

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