Ho Chi Minh City day 1 - Mekong Delta

We had a frankly rather welcome sea day on the 29th. After four consecutive port stops it was nice to catch up on school, attend a couple of talks, and do a bit of review on our way to Vietnam. On the morning of the 30th we approached Ho Chi Minh City via the Saigon River. This gave us great views of the city as we got closer. This was similar to our approach to Bangkok where we could see the wide variety of riverfront buildings, but here there were more natural areas that had not been built up. It was fun to see a natural river as we came into the city rather than a concrete channel.

Once docked we were quickly off the ship as we had a long day planned to tour the Mekong Delta region. The nearly 2-hour bus ride was broken up with a restroom stop at what looked very much like a truck stop you’d find in the US, and then a stop at the largest pagoda in Vietnam. This was an impressive structure with several enormous Buddha statues on the grounds.

When we reached the delta proper, we piled into a boat to head over to one of the myriad islands. During the Vietnam War the Viet Cong would hide on these islands during the day. We were exposed to a number of facets of day-to-day living that have not changed much over the years. We saw rice being “popped” – tossed into a huge wok over a blazing fire until it turned into puffed rice that looked and tasted just like the cereal – and were served some nice fruit while listening to a group of Vietnamese singers. But the best part was loading into tiny canoes for a ride along one of the canals to get back to our boat. The canoe seated six: the four of us plus a Vietnamese woman at front and back to propel and guide the canoe. The canal wasn’t more than ten feet wide and was busy with canoes going in both directions ferrying both tourists and locals.

Once out of the canoe we saw coconut candy being made without sugar. The coconut is mashed into a paste and combined with peanuts to make something like a taffy. It was pretty tasty. Then it was back onto our boat to head to lunch. The lunch location was shady, open, and airy, which felt great after the suffocating stillness of the island village. The default meal was fried elephant ear fish, but we were able to procure a vegetarian meal that was quite good. After lunch we had a short boat ride to the dock then back on the bus for a sleepy ride to Ho Chi Minh City. I’d expected more of a broad tour of the delta, but the canal ride was great.

We had dinner on the ship then left the boys to their own devices while Liz and I went to find a Vietnamese coffee. We found a spot within walking distance and had a delicious iced coffee. I’m not generally a fan of cold coffee or coffee with milk, but this concoction was really good. It was a nice nightcap.Read more