Where are D and B?: Ho Chi Minh City: Mekong Delta

One Day Mekong Delta Tour (My Tho--Ben Tre): Jan. 26th

It was around a 2 hour drive to the Mekong Delta area. We took a break at a rest stop where we noticed the price of Agarwood. A small piece of Agarwood around the size of Brian's arm was around $1200. I guess the wood is basically like a type on incense--it smells really good! BUT I would never pay this much for a piece of wood...!!

There were orchids growing from the rooftops---simply gorgeous.

We loved this Buddha but of course, she was wood, and was around $200.oo.

The Mekong Delta area has seen its fair share of challenges. It used to be part of the Khmer Kingdom and was part of Lower Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge initiated many raids on the Vietnamese villages in this area, and in 1979 the Vietnamese had had enough. They invaded Cambodia to overthrow the Khmer Rouge government from power. This government was also responsible for murdering 2 million innocent Cambodians. The types of people that reside in the Mekong Delta area are mostly Vietnamese but there are also inhabitants from China and Cambodia. The Mekong delta is a maze of waterways, and the region has around 17 million inhabitants living here. Most of them rely on farming and fishing.–Lonely Planet Vietnam

We passed by the floating Fish market in My Tho, but with it being TET holiday, this area was closed. We then toured around the four islands: Dragon, Unicorn, Tortoise, and Phoenix. The names of the islands symbolize the following:
Dragon: Prosperity
Unicorn: Power
Turtle: Longevity
Phoenix: Beauty

Mekong Delta Tour:

We then visited the village of Ben Tre and enjoyed fresh tropical fruits, pure honey, and traditional liquor.

Beeeeszzzzeee!

This is where B decided to meet his new friend: a huge Boa contstrictor. They even had a bottle of the scorpion and snake blood liquor to try—We refrained.

Cheers to our Canadian Friends!! We tried some sort of Banana Liquor (I think!)

We sat and enjoyed the fruits of the area and listened to some typical Vietnamese music.

Rowing on a small little boat on the muddy canals was fun. We were able to see all the lush vegetation that this area is known for. We even were able to see how coconut candy was made. This was yummy and sort of tasted like taffy, but was made with coconut milk. After lunch, our Canadian friends and us took off on some bikes to explore the little village!

The Muddy Mekong!

Traffic Jam on the river!

Our Guide

This area makes 50% of the rice produced in Vietnam. Manual labor is the machine here when it comes to planting the rice, and they rely on the water buffalo instead of tractors. The Mekong is Vietnam’s main rice production area along with the cultivation of sugarcane, fruit, coconut, fish, shrimp, etc. It’s a rural area but heavily populated due to the opportunity for jobs. 4.6 million tons of rice are produced in Vietnam with most of that being produced in the Mekong Delta area. Vietnam ranks 2nd in rice production just behind Thailand, and the USA ranks 3rd.

Coconut Candy anyone?

The process of making it:

A water buffalo chilling in the water at lunch. I felt so bad for this poor thing. He was on the shortest leash ever.

Admiring the gorgeous flower arrangements set up for TET around the city.

Walk

Walking back from the Ben Thanh Market—formerly known as Les Halles Centrale was first opened in 1914, and you can find almost anything in this market--we saw many people out and about the streets enjoying their holiday!

Now can you imagine how many mopeds there really are in this city?

We took a walk over to the Notre Dame Cathedral in Ho Chi Minh--It wasn't too far from our hotel and it was really neat to see such a large Catholic church right in the center of the city.

It was built between 1877 and 1833 with bricks brought from Marseilles, France and stained-glass windows from Chartres. There is a beautiful statue of the Virgin Mary that sits in front of the church.