Day 31 – Hers.
So many impressions of today – I hardly know where to
begin. We awoke to the alarm at 6 and
readied ourselves, the group assembling – still slightly bleary-eyed - in the
lobby at 7am. We staggered onto the
Intrepid minibus and were driven to the Koto restaurant for much needed coffee
and breakfast. The restaurant is an
Intrepid-sponsored project to give street kids top-notch training in the
hospitality industry. They learn
English, catering and silver service – given accommodation for two years and a
bike – and then helped to find employment in a top hotel or restaurant. The food was good, the service nearly
excellent and the young people very pleasant indeed. One girl had only 3 months until ‘graduation’
and was very excited.
Back on the minibus, we travelled the 2 hours to the river
port of My Tho. Vinh regaled us with
stories of his youth in his tiny village (He was the only person in his year to
go to university – the town loudspeaker broadcast the news and all the
neighbours brought rice or chickens or money as gifts.) and explained aspects
of the Vietnamese economic, land ownership and political systems and the
complicated and slightly bizarre traditional three-year funerary rites. We stopped briefly at a tourist rest area and
gift shop. Some of the more popular gift
items appeared to be wooden models of helicopter gunships and T-shirts reading ‘Good
Morning Vietnam’. Not to my taste – nor Peter’s. It’s Peter’s birthday today – a very big one –
and I think he was trying to find a present to buy himself – but a carved
wooden tank didn’t seem to be what he had in mind....
The Mekong delta
region is to the southwest of Ho Chi Minh City and encompasses about 39,000
square kilometres (15,000 sq mi) though the size of the area covered by water
depends on the season. It has recently
been dubbed as a 'biological treasure trove' because over 10,000 new species
have been discovered in previously unexplored areas of the delta, including a
species of rat thought to be extinct. During
the Vietnam War, the Mekong Delta area saw fierce fighting between Viet Cong
(NLF) guerrillas and units of the United States Navy's swift boats and
hovercrafts (PACVs).
The gateway to the delta region is the port of My Tho, the
quiet capital city of Tien Giang province.
On our arrival at My Tho, we met our local guide (Loi) and boarded
a river launch to cross the Mekong – passing the 4 islands, each named for one
of the sacred animals: Dragon, Unicorn, Phoenix and Tortoise – weaving amongst
the water hyacinths and avoiding the fishing boats, tugs, barges loaded with
sand for landfill, houseboats, fish farms and many other tourist craft on the
river. The river is very brown – fresh water,
but full of silt – but the boats are brightly coloured and those not for
fishing have ‘eyes’ painted either side of the pointed bows – traditionally,
the eyes were intended to scare away any sea monsters, now they are mainly to
make them look friendly for tourists.
Fishing boats, of course, could not have ‘eyes’ or they would scare away
the fish.
Landing safely at Ben Tre, we toured a village ‘factory’
where they made coconut candy and baked coconut rice paper. We tasted the candy, some banana or rice ‘wine’
(It tasted more like ‘firewater’ to me.) and the rice paper crisps – that Rob thinks
would be a real seller in the UK. Kendal
got to make some of the rice paper, spreading the coconut rice mixture on top
of the coconut leaf-burning stove, covering it with a lid to steam and then
expertly lifting and rolling it to place it on woven palm racks to dry. We all handled the factory’s pet python – Rob
was bravest and went first - and we all bought something – the candy will make
terrific presents, I think.
We walked down a ‘jungle’ path - concrete poured between two
of the small coconut-lined ‘canals’ that run throughout the area – and were
loaded onto two ‘tuk tuks’ – motorbikes with trailers containing seats at the
back for the drive to the next point of interest. We all had to wear helmets – but mine was so
loose that it only stayed on my head if I held it there – so I’m not sure there
was any real point....
We drove through a rural area somewhat similar to Cam Kim
island (near Hoi An) with canals and fruit trees added – brightly-painted
houses (most narrow, but deep), little shops and workshops – the homes of
Vietnamese people less touched by tourism.
Many of the streetside bars and cafes had hammocks – patrons rocking
gently whilst supping their 333 beer or orange soda. Our next destination was one of these cafes,
set back a bit from the road, where we sampled local fruits – pomelo, something
a bit like lichee, something that looked more like sweet potato and pineapple,
dipped in chilli salt. We saw the
outdoor kitchen and a dragon fruit vine, the bright pink fruit ripening in the
sun. We learned about jack fruit and
durians – and how the roofs were made.
Rob took to the hammock and we wondered if we could ever get him to move
on. We each visited the ‘Happy Room’ (As
Loi said, ‘Once you’ve been, you are happy....) and returned to the tuk tuks
for another ride through rural Ben Tre to a restaurant near the river.
By this time, I felt that all we had done all morning was
eat. I really couldn’t face lunch – but Kendall,
Heidi and Peter ordered the speciality of Elephant Ear fish and busily made
spring rolls using noodles, vegetables and the quite ugly, but tasty-looking
fish.
We climbed the rickety Monkey Bridge and photographed the
rowing boats- more gondolas, really - below and then boarded the little boats for a
trip down river until it became wide enough and deep enough for the river
launch, docked just where we would need it for the trip back to the main
port. On the way over, they had told us
about river snakes – eels, I assume – and whilst in the rowing boat we saw an
upright stick that looked very much like the head of a snake, moving in the
current. Kendall and Peter were both
convinced that it was, indeed, a snake....I kind of wish that they were correct
– it adds to the adventure.... It will no doubt become a real snake in the
telling of the anecdote later on.....
At the port, we climbed back aboard the minibus for the 2
hours back to Ho Chi Minh City. Kendall –
as usual – fell immediately to sleep (I don’t know how she does that – and I’m
envious....) and the rest of us looked out the windows (or tried not to look) as
our driver negotiated the busy highway.
The insistent parping of motorbikes and a terrific view of the 65-floor
Financial Tower announced our return to HCMC.
A day of adventure – that wasn’t over yet.....
Day 31 – His.
Be prepared to tip. This is serious advice. The English – of
which I am clearly one – don’t expect to tip. Well, if we do it’s a few bob
added to a dinner bill or maybe refusing to take the small change from a taxi
driver, but here it’s a way of life. The standard rate seems to be a dollar a
day and as we had the tuk tuk drivers, boat driver, local guide, bus driver and
the main guide to tip most of our budget seemed to disappear in tips. We seemed
to spend as much of the day stuffing Dong into envelopes and handing it over as
we did anything else and if you are not prepared for it – well it’s a surprise.
So, be warned.
Peter – who seems to have been given the nickname of Peter Pan
by the locals – who are delighted to find his name is Peter – and he gets it
all the time. Peter is a great bloke – bless his heart – but he is about as far
from Peter Pan as you can get. However, he does have a magical character. Our
camera broke yesterday and this morning Peter handed us one (his spare) and let
us use it all day until we managed to get a replacement. What a guy!
Finding a replacement camera wasn’t that difficult. We walked
up the main street until we found a store carrying them and went in and pointed
to one in the window as a young shop assistant tried to help us – clearly terrified
by the challenge of having to speak to us in English. It turned out the shop
ran in pretty much the same way as Argos at home and by a series of pantomimes,
pointings and head noddings we negotiated the shop assistant, the invoicing
department, the cashiers and finally the dispatch department all of which had
shoving queues of people who were all doing the same thing before getting their
goods and having them checked by the guards so they could leave the shop with
them. We didn’t pay that much and the guys in the shop kept loading us with
freebies. We got a carry case, free memory, free batteries and a free backpack
all to go with our camera and I think we paid about £50 for a camera that would
have cost £100 in the UK. Quite a deal.
This is, of course, our last night in Vietnam with our
current group and we meet our Cambodian guide tomorrow and shove on to Cambodia
the next day so – as is tradition with these things we arranged a last night
dinner with our tour leader.
The dinner turned out to be a combined affair as it was
Peter Pan’s birthday too. Everybody wanted to go to an authentic Vietnamese restaurant,
one without a western face in view apart from ours, and Vinh, bless his heart,
arranged it for us. The place he took us was a bedlam of noise and jolly waiters
who clearly thought we were mad. The main speciality of the place was barbeque whole
roast pig that they cooked over half oil
barrels in the street in front of the restaurant. Vinh ordered us a pig and the
waiters danced around us trying to get us to eat with forks. I can only suppose
for their own amusement as there were about half a dozen of them round our
table laughing and nudging each other as we ate. It was all huge fun. After a
taxi ride home we said a tearful goodbye to Can Do – we are going to miss her
and shook hands with Vinh, who made sure we had his phone number in case we had
any problems after we left him – a seriously nice guy – and then off to bed as
we meet our new group tomorrow.
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