Mekong 2.0

An early start on our second day of the tour to get the best of the floating market. It was great…chaotic and confusing with so many vessels and folks bartering for the best deal. Huge boats hauling wood and sand and other construction materials gliding by on the outside p, boats laden with pineapples, coconuts, sweet potatoes and other veggies in the centre and tiny long tails zipping in and out selling drinks and fruit to tourists, farmers and wholesalers alike.

I found myself on the side of the boat away from the majority of the action. Since we couldn’t all be on that side (or else we’d experience the Mekong up close and personal), I was content to watch from the frimges. It wasn’t until we’d made our way through the fray to the other side that I realized I hadn’t taken a single shot with my phone for the blog. Apologies, but I was in the moment!

We did see one thing that may have been rare…a near-fight between an older woman and a young man. She was threatening to hit him with a stick, and it was touch-and-go there for a few minutes. No idea what it was about, but since everyone appeared to be paying close attention, I had the sense that it doesn’t happen every day.

Next stop was a rice noodle place…similar to what we saw the day before but with the extra step of sending the big round rice sheets through a slicer. A slick operation which I’ll remember the next time I see the noodles wound together like wool in the packaging.

We then headed to a small village where we rented rickety bicycles for an hour’s ride along the twisting, turning canals. I didn’t realize that many of these were dug out by hand to expand access for those who lived there back in the day. There are now a whopping 27,000 kms of waterways.

I met some wonderful people on this tour – two couples from Sweden traveling together and two Vietnamese couples from Canada who didn’t know each other to begin with. Fascinating to see this country through the eyes of someone returning after a long period of time…