Mekong River Day 7 (Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam): The Last Day

The last day of any trip is always a bittersweet one. 

We only had one excursion to a local garden and a candy factory today. We took a smaller boat down the most scenic route of this trip, hiked through a village out to a boat dock, got onto a canoe headed out to a local garden. This garden grew a wide variety of fruits and hosted a gift shop with traditional Vietnamese clothes, alligator and snake skin goods. The candy factory was really interesting. We were shown how a fresh coconut was turned into a candy and sampled a few. The workers there were extremely fast!

This trip has been amazing! I’ve learned more about Vietnamese and Cambodian culture than I ever thought I would—Their religion, their history and the way they lived. The people we traveled with have also been phenomenal which makes traveling half way around the world so much more enjoyable. Meeting new people is always one of the highlights of my travels.

Here’s to many more!

Until my next adventure, Cheers!

Mekong River Day 6 (Long Khanh A): A Textile Workshop, A Catholic Church and A Couple of Craftsmen

Today we went to a textile workshop, explored a village by motor cart, went to a Vietnamese catholic church, visited a family that makes traditional conical hats and another family that makes boats.

On our first excursion this morning we headed out on those smaller river boats and took a motor cart out to a textile workshop. The motor carts we took were carts pulled by small motorcycles. Each cart accommodated up to 6 people. I don’t know how such a small motorcycle can pull so much weight but we managed to get where we need to go with out any major problems. The architecture in the village we drove through had similar layouts to the ones in Cambodia but the houses were mostly more stone, marble and cement as opposed to wood. The textile workshop was a small operation that made scarves, bags, hats and other cloth products to sell to a distributor. They had 6 automatic looms that produce 20 times more fabric than a manual loom. They kept a manual loom just to show curious visitors but it wasn’t working today.

The Cu Lao Gieng church was the first Catholic church we’ve seen the whole trip. Built in 1879 This church is the oldest church in the southern region of Vietnam and the final resting place of a French priest, Gazignol.

After lunch we headed back out to the village to visit a family that makes conical hats, Non La. This family makes most of their money farming but they sell hats for extra income. Each hat is made with palm leaves fastened to 16 bamboo rings for structural rigidity.

Before we headed back to the boat, we visited another family that made boats. The craftsman showed us how he shaped and treated the wood to make a 4 person vessel. He was very enthusiastic and was more than happy to show us how he worked.

When we got back, we attended the nightly cocktail hour, had dinner and retired for the night

This trip is going by pretty quickly

Mekong River Day 5 (Chau Doc, Vietnam) “GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM!”

Today was our first day in Vietnam. We went to a very crowded wet market, took a trip down the backwaters, went to a temple and a supermarket.

Our first excursion was a city hike out to the local wet market. A wet market is a street market that sells mostly produce, meat and some cooked food. On our way there we passed some interesting shops and vendors. This market was way more crowded than the other ones we went to. Not only were the aisles narrower we had to share the space with bikes, mopeds, motorcycles and scooters. Yeah! People somehow drive their motorized vehicles through there. It was absolutely phenomenal. We were shuffled through the market at a pretty quick pace so we wouldn’t get in anybody’s way. While shuffling our guide was telling us about some of the produce that we don’t normally see in the US. It was hard to keep up with all the information while trying to navigate through the busy aisles. In my street market experience, you’re always going to be in someone’s way, there’s no avoiding it, especially in a space that crowded.

On the next excursion, we took a boat ride out past the fish farms in the backwaters of the Mekong River, to the temple of Ba Chua Xu near the bottom of Sam Mountain. Ba Chua Xu is a powerful protector and a supporter. She is known to give assistance freely but it is extremely important that she is repaid for her assistance and the promises that are made to her are kept. She is not forgiving and there are horror stories about those who have tried to swindle her.

Before heading back, we stopped by a supermarket but it was just like ours back home so there isn’t really much to write about on that.  

We attended cocktail hour, ate dinner and headed to bed when we got back.

Today felt exhausting