The Mekong Delta - by Steff

A peaceful arm of the Mekong River
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Mekong Delta

The Mekong Delta is a piece of land that has been formed from the Mekong River’s silt. The Mekong is one of the largest rivers in the world. Locals live on the rivers edge in stilt houses. They shop at the floating market, which is little put-put boats that sell fruit like pineapples, watermelon, bananas, fish, flowers and other items. The main market is a busy place with browsers, buyers and tourists. The boat that we were on was a little bit tippy, as were all the other boats the locals use. Gliding around the obstacles in our way is what we imagined we were to do, but gliding is not the word. We were pushed around the market, like a child being bullied and shoved, by other boats big and small. We hardly used the motor on our boat until we got to open waters for it was too crowded.

The Mekong Delta is a busy place; day and night. The floating market during the day and the party atmosphere at night gives it a unique place to be.

Fruits for sale at the floating market
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Some stops along the river allowed us to have a chance to see what the locals actually do for a living. One place we stopped at had a popcorn making contraption. The contraption consisted of a huge wok big enough to hold me. However, it held some sand and some rice with the husks still on. The wok was heated up on a big fire, then the sand was poured in, and the sand turned black because of the heat. The expert swished the sand around for a while, then after 2 minutes he poured a bowl of rice grains in, with the husks. A couple seconds later, magically, puffy white pieces appeared from beneath the black sand. Then you have Vietnamese popcorn, actually poprice! In Vietnam you waste nothing because the fuel for the fire was actually the dry husks of the popped rice.

A balloon seller selling balloons for Lunar New Year celebrations
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Another stop that we made was at a rice paper making factory. A liquid substance will soon be the paper. The lady manning the station was showing us how to do it. She first made a fire, and then put a pot of boiling water over top. On top of the pot sat a piece of cheesecloth and on top of that was a banana leaf lid. She scooped some of the liquid out of the bowl and smeared it evenly in a round circle onto the cloth. Putting the lid on to steam the rice liquid, she pushed more rice husks into the fire. Then after a couple of seconds, she raised the lid and peeled the now jelly substance off the cloth, and put it in the sun to dry. After a day in the scorching sun the rice paper is now crispy and ready to eat or make edible candy rappers with. Yum.

A woman making rice paper
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The river water is quite useful for the locals. It is used for drinking, to wash their clothes and produce in, and to bathe and fish. We are used to clean clear tap water so thinking about doing all our chores with this mucky, brown water made us grimace. Especially when that same water splashed over the bow of our boat and into our faces!!! Luckily we had our hats along and were able to shelter ourselves. We were glad when we got back to solid ground.

In the evening we witnessed the action of the local people around the waterfront. The local kids are running around and playing with each other while the parents sit around on the benches. It was almost New Years and it was full of people milling about enjoying themselves. There were flowers galore, balloon sellers; food stalls that sold dumplings, steamed buns and goodies. But we were used to crowds and we enjoyed it. The waterfront has lots of locals, which is good so we can see what their life is like, and only 2 or 3 other tourists. When a tourist sees another one, they look at each other with a spark of recognition.

Flowers are also for sale on the river
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The Mekong Delta is a busy place; day and night. The floating market during the day and the party atmosphere at night gives it a unique place to be.