Mekong Delta Cruise - cone hats abound!

Coconut wrapper. We had to set our cameras to "action"

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After our wonderful Hah-pie Tour welcome, we decided to take one of their "cultural adventures", a cruise in the Mekong River Delta, south of Saigon.  We were introduced to our guide, friendly and helpful, though of limited English outside the tour script.  We travelled with about 8 others, and had fun bonding over lunch and busses.  We then boarded the typical Mekong Delta passenger craft, a long dragon-style boat with an awning and a driver at the back.  The Mekong is masssive but calm at the delta, and is a huge center of commerce, industry and agriculture.  Not to mention tourism.  We passed about 25 identical boats carrying virtually identical tour groups!

The trip was pretty typical, lots of stops to view local industry followed by shops in which to purchase products of local industry.  We visited a coconut candy factory that produces a sticky, thickly sweet candy which is wrapped by hand.  The hand wrapping was by far the most impressive part, two women moving at the speed of sound wrapping in excess of 5000 candies each per day.  We were in awe...obviously, many of you will be receiving coconut candy when we return.  The factory was also home to a python and a beehive. (?)  We got to hold the python, but said no thanks to the bee hive. 

Our host's grandneices. They put on a recital of traditional songs for us. So cute!

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The Mekong Delta is also home to several floating markets where farmers bring commercial quantities of fruit and fish to sell to shops from the cities.  The crews are mostly women, typically wearing the traditional outfit of ao dai (pants and a long slit dress) and the bamboo cone hat.  They were happy to pose for pictures and chat as our boats crossed paths.  It was fun to see the boats piled high with "exotic" fruits...pineapples so ripe we could smell them, bright dragon fruits, fuzzy rambuttan and the dreaded durian. 

We stayed the night in a small village (not floating) with a really nice family.  We were accompanied by a South African artist and an American couple who were old enough to know better than the way they behaved!  In the space of one meal they managed to bring up: the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, religion and local politics.  The also managed to make the unbelievable statement that "Vietnam is doing so well, maybe the war wasn't such a bad thing."  Since most of their comments were met with stunned silence, changing the subject was easy. The conversation was much more comfortable when it centered on: local industry, the adorable graddaughters, the beautiful house and the fantastic meal.  It was a fun experience, but it had the flavor of a hotel much more than a homestay. 

Mekong riverboat

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Our last stop was a bonsai tree garden.  Susan's comment "That's those little trees, right?" foretold her decision to stay in the bus for the 15 minute stop.  Michelle found the little trees captivating and exciting, and wholeheartedly believes that Susan missed out on one of the trip highlights. 

Next up, Michelle and Susan visit the food capital of Vietnam, where Michelle discovers a violent aversion to papya, durian, jackfruit and anything that even remotely smells like any of them!