Sze Wan: Vietnam Day IV - Cruise down Mekong

We took another short trip today to the Mekong Delta organized by the Delta Adventure Tour.

Our guides today were Viet and and Phat. Both were very humorous guys.

Our guide, Viet was briefing us on our itinerary.

Phat...

We departed at 7.30am from our guest house. We left on a bus to the Cai Be town where we boarded our boat. The journey was about 2 and a half hours long. At Cai Be, we boarded the wooden boat. The boat has many fordable wooden chair. They were very comfortable and steady for the cruise.

Before boarding the boat

the wooden craft

On the Mekong River, there were crafts and ships of all sizes and capacities. This was a very important waterway of the locals. Their daily livelihood revolves around it. All washing, cooking and even sleeping were in th boat. And the river has also become the communication points with the neighbouring Cambodia and their urban countrymen.

daily activities on Mekong River

church by the bank

all boats here as the same 2 eyes at the front...part of the local myth

On the boat, we first cruised to the floating market. This market was different from the floating market in Bangkok. It was more like a wholesale market. Here the barter system was used. Traders hung their items up like a flag to notify others on their merchant items. We could see many pineapples, pumpkins and other seasoning fruits hosted on the bamboo sticks.

Then we headed to the coconut candy factory. The coconut candy making process was really complicated. The candy was made from pure coconut milk. The coconut was break, flesh was first shred and pressed for milk. Then the milk was cooked for long hours until it thickened.

the coconut candy making

Besides that, we witnessed the making of the spring roll wrapper...from the rice flour mixture to the steamer then to be dried and finally cut into small pieces.

spring roll wrapper steamer

Making rice cracker

Met a friendly couple from Israel...if we are not allowed into Israel and Israelien ont allowed into Malaysia, then perhaps Vietnam is the place.

Then we walked to the nearby pop rice factory. The making process was rather interesting. First they heated the earth taken from the river. Then they put in raw paddy. The paddy would popped like what we normally see in the popcorn making. But the difference here was, the paddy would pop forming the rice pop and the husk would be separated. The pop rice would be filtered to remove the husk and the earth. Then caramel and maltose would be added.

frying the earth and paddy

removing the husk and earth

After the visit, we boarded the boat again and headed to one of the island in the Delta Mekong. Here we had a great lunch. After the good lunch, we were given an hour to cycle round the island, but my friends and I chose to stay in and rest on the hammock while enjoying the breeze. How wonderful if we could do this in Malaysia...staying in kampung and enjoyed the scenery.

By 2.30pm, we left the restaurant and took a kayak ride. 4 in a kayak and with a traditional Vietnamese hat on us. We dared not move much as worried that the kayak would capsized. When Ee Pheng's umbrella flew off, we was worried that the sudden movement would got us all wet. Luckily the ride along the peaceful river and great scenery along the river was enjoyable.

love these photos...taken on the kayak with the great blue sky

Finally we were back on the boat and had a bumpy ride to the Vinh Long. The wave and current were very strong.

Back in the HCM city, we took a taxi ride to the Cholon or the Chinatown of HCM. We got a delicious dinner of fried beef noodle in the Tiem An Nam Long. The restaurant owner was very friendly and nice. He showed us all the great attractions around and recommended us the best coffee bean around. The aroma was very strong, so I bought 2 packets back.