Far East Update 12 - The Mekong Delta - Nov 2012

Good morning Vietnam

We had a great night's sleep in HCMC

We were ready to go at 9 am after leaving our luggage with the concierge for
our return visit on Friday afternoon.

Vinh picked us up at the airport and off we headed to the Mekong Delta.

But first a few words about our first impressions of Vietnam and of HCMC.
The city is enormous and bustling with activity. There is a blend of modern
and very old buildings. The city is green with lots of trees and tropical
greenery. There are motorcycles everywhere and they never seem to let up.
The people are very friendly and even though we are warned about petty theft
and purse snatching, we feel very safe. 

All the new developments are super modern and beautiful. We walked into a
department store across the road from the hotel and it would rival any
upscale department store in North America with identical brand names. It is
clear that capitalism has taken over. The hotel that we are at, the Sofitel,
is very upscale and the level of service is elegant and wonderful. 

Back to Thursday morning. We headed southwest out of the city to the famous
Mekong Delta, about a 90 minute drive. When we arrived, we boarded a long
boat for a short ride across the Mekong river to a small village on one of
the islands that make up the delta. The delta is an enormous area and close
to neighbouring Cambodia. The Mekong river is the 10th longest river in the
world, stretching 4500 kms. 

 When we reached the island, we found ourselves in the midst of a swampy
tropical area with all sorts of trees, coconut, mango, breadfruit, bananas,
jackfruit, mangosteen, lychee, etc.

In front of us was a factory with a number of women taking coconut, processing it 
thru boiling to create coconut taffy and then cutting these into taffy candies, packaging and then selling these to tourists like us.

But they also sold a number of craft products made from coconuts, snakeskin, alligator skin, bamboo, traditional clothing etc. included was snake wine and cobra/scorpion rice wine, meaning that you can actually see the cobras and Scorpio s in the bottle.

We continued thru the jungle till we reached a clearing and boarded buggies
being pulled by Mongolian horses. 

These took us to another village where we saw some of the villagers and were treated to a variety of fresh tropical fruits and a concert of Vietnamese music. I was so taken by the music and some of the unique instruments, that I joined in the singing. 

I also tried my hand playing a very strange one string guitar like instrument. I was
thinking of teaching them a few niggunim and inviting them to the next NCSY
concert.

We then boarded small rowboats and were rowed thru a number of narrow canals
completely closed in by huge water coconut plants and towering bamboo
plants. You would have thought that you were deep in the jungle. After 15
minutes, we had made a complete circle and were back at our longboat for the
return trip back to our original launching point. 

This was a very interesting and enjoyable half day, which allowed us to see
the countryside and the way local villagers live. You are also struck by the
contrast of many homes that look like shacks next to magnificent new homes
that have been built by some of the villagers who have done well. 

We ate lunch in the van and headed further west to our hotel for the night
in Can Tho, Vietnam, which was the site of a major American army base and
airport during the war. The road which they called a highway, was really a
very undeveloped two lane road which took us thru many small towns on the
way to our hotel. As a result, the trip which would have taken one hour
would take two and a half hours. 

All along the way, we saw small enclosures on the side of the road housing
ten to twenty hammocks...these were true rest stops for motorcyclists. You
can get very tired riding a motorbike and these are provided so that you can
rest your body before continuing.

At around 5 pm, we saw the town of Can Tho in the distance. It is right on
one of the many entrances to the Mekong delta. This is where we stay for the
night at a place called the Victoria Resort. As we were checking in, a
number of the bellhops approached us and in Hebrew were able to
say...."shalom mah shelomcha,,,,," ....when we asked them where they learned
this, they said that we have groups of Israelis here all the time and
therefore we have learned some Hebrew. 


The hotel is very nice and is situated right on the Mekong Riverbank. They
provide a shuttle boat which runs to the centre of Can Tho all day, so after
checking in, Fran and I took the shuttle into town. We visited the night
market and bought a few small items. We walked around a bit. Their entire
life revolves around the river. There are river taxis everywhere, arriving
every few minutes to pick up and deposit passengers from the other bank of
the river. 


We finally returned to the hotel and ate dinner, and are going to sleep
early as tomorrow's touring begins at 7 am. We will then return to HCMC in
the early afternoon and will spend Shabbat at Chabad.

Since Shabbat begins tomorrow at 5 pm, we may not send out another posting
before Shabbat, so we wish all of you Shabbat shalom from Vietnam

All the best

Fran and David=