Boat and Island hopping in the Mekong Delta

Boats along the Mekong River.
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Jan 22/07

I went on a day-tour of the Mekong Delta today. Every bus I've taken here has the same "handy" system where you get picked up at your hotel for tours or bus trips. It usually goes something like this: I was picked up at my hotel by moto and drive ALLLL the way to the bus stop (around the block). Then the bus drove ALLLL the way back around the block to stop in front of my hotel to pick up different people, then we criss-crossed the neighbourhood picking up more people from other hotels. I think it would be a lot simpler and faster to just make everyone get to a single meeting point and leave from there....but nobody asked me.

Coconut Candy production.
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We drove for 2 hours down National Highway #1 (the equivalent of the Trans-Canada) which was smaller than Gaetz Ave, had lots of lights on it and I think we hit a top speed of 60 km/hr. Needless to say, not a huge thuroughfare. I think in those 2 hours, we travelled maybe 80 km.

Then we arrived at the tour area, and were sorted. This is something that happens a lot on tours here. They transport everyone to one place (people doing  1-day, 2-day and 3-day tours) and then sort them, and then re-sort them during the day. First, we had some 2-day people added to our group, and 3-day people moved out. We got onto the first boat, which was kinda large, with open sides and seated 20. It also was badly balanced, so it tended to lean to one side, no matter how many people were on the other side to counter-balance. We rode to the first island of the day, Coco Island, where we were moved to smaller boats, much lower and seating about 7 people. Coco Island is named because that's where they make coconut candy. We rode in our small boat through canals to reach the coconut candy factory. The candy is produced a lot like maple sugar candy. First, the coconut meat is scrapped from the inside of the shell. Then it is pressed to get the milk out, and the milk is boiled down to a toffee-like consistancy. The candy is shaped into strips, (or be tasted, it's great warm) and allowed to cool. The strips are cut, wrapped in rice paper and wrappers then sold to poor tourists who don't realize how heavy it's going to be to drag around the country. (You will all be forced to eat it when I get home...) We also got to try banana wine and if it's a wine, I'll be shocked. I'd have said banana whisky, it was stong enough to melt nose hairs when you smelled it.

Elephant Ear fish (for lunch) Would you want to eat it?
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Back on the boat, we went to the second island, Dragon Island. Here, we got to taste fresh honey mixed with tea, snake wine (yup, it has a snake in the bottle), and hold the local python, Joe. The honey was amazing, the snake was nice, and I skipped the wine altogether. After the banana "wine" I wasn't up for more alcohol.

Different boat, onto the 3rd island, Turtle Island. Here we got lunch, and oh, what a good lunch it was. The best spring rolls I tasted the whole of Vietnam. We also got to see an Elephant Ear Fish, and a pineapple plant (I never realised how pineapples grew). The Elephant Ear Fish was one of the lunch options....no one tried it (see photo to understand why). Here, we got back onto our original lop-sided boat and continued on to Unicorn Island.

Old lady rowing us through the canals
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As we approached Unicorn Island, we got onto row boats. Like very low canoes, with only 4 seats, we were right on top of the water. We were rowed down the canals by 2 little old ladies, who handed out traditional Vietnamese cone hats. At times, the canal was only just barely wider than the boat, and the rowers pushed along the sides with the paddles. On the Island, we were treated to a traditional Vietnamese musical performance. This was very nice, until they started singing "Frere Jaques" and "Put your left foot in, put your left foot out..." in Vietnamese. Somehow I don't think they were traditional songs. We tried very hard not to laugh, but it was tough.

Our big boat.
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Finally, back on our original boat, we putted to the dock, and were re-sorted according to hotel for our journey back to HCMC.