Sadly, it was time to leave Ho Chi Minh City this morning. It’s the first place that we have felt a bit rushed as we were only here for a day and a half and each half day was full on plus it was like a sauna.

I  think you probably need at least three days to do it justice.

A two-hour drive south East and we entered the Mekong delta where we boarded our little rice barge for the night at Cai Be, arriving tomorrow at Can Tho.

Our boat is called Bassac 2.

The Bassac was a traditional wooden rice barge which was converted for passengers and this boat is a replica built in the same shipyard by the same builder. 

It has ten cabins and, although they are not huge, as there are only six of us on board we have plenty of space to relax. 

We boarded in time for lunch, after which we all jumped in a small wooden motorboat that took us to the shore where, for the third time in twenty years, I went on another bike ride.

So, that’s three times in eight days.

I’m becoming a proper little Lance Armstrong but I guess he didn’t compete much here as the penalty for drug abuse is death. Ironically by lethal drug injection.

I’m thinking of getting one of those Brazilian bum lifts as my bottom seems to be faulty, or maybe it’s Vietnamese bike saddles that are designed for the more petite Vietnamese bum cheek.

Whatever the cause, I’m in pain. If this cycling lark continues I need a solution so our next trip may be to Brazil to have internal padding fitted à la Beyoncé. (Allegedly).

Luckily there was some relief as we made a few stops along the way:

The first was at a local village where a lady called Mrs Ha weaves baskets to supplement her income. The frame and materials are delivered to her by a mysterious middle man (no one seemed to know who runs the operation) and each basket takes her around four hours to complete. She is paid 7,000 Dongs (£0.23) per hour so, that’s less than £1 for half a day’s work. 

She seems perfectly happy to do this in her spare time but it does show the relative poverty of rural Vietnam and yet we’ve seen no-one complaining.

They are all welcoming, smiling and seem happy with their lot, but it did seem like exploitation to some of our party.

My own view is that it’s just local economic forces rather than exploitation as long as they can choose whether to do it or not and as long as they are happy with what they receive – though the mysterious middleman seemed a bit, well, mysterious .

Next time you see cheap foreign products in a discount store though, they are there because of workers like Mrs Ha

Our second stop was at a duck farm. I never knew that was a thing but I’m no ducking expert. 

The duck farmer grazes his flock on the local rice farmer’s paddy field as it’s usually submerged under shallow water.

It’s a symbiotic relationship as the duck farmer uses someone else’s land to raise his ducks which, in return, poo in the rice field and fertilise the rice. 

Incidentally, the ducks often don’t make it back to dry land in time and accidentally lay their eggs amongst the rice. I assume that this is where egg fried rice originates? 🥚 🌾 🥢😀. 

As we are literally in the middle of nowhere,  I had anticipated a quiet few days of electronic downtime, with only the sound of Brigitte’s uncontrollable shaking at the thought of having no phone signal for more than thirty seconds to bother me, but no.

Here we are, on the vast Mekong river, in the middle of a tropical forest on a tiny boat and we have great 4G phone signal plus wi-fi on the boat. If I drive half a mile up the road from my home in Harrogate there’s no signal whatsoever and yet Vietnam is, apparently, the third-world country. 

Incidentally,  they’re building a high speed train system here. 1,300 km of track with 350 km per hour trains at a cost of $70 billion in 10 yrs – and I’d put money on them bringing it on time and budget.

In the UK I think ours was 220km of track at a cost of £70 billion and rising. It’s already taken 7 years and is planned to take another nine and I wouldn’t bet on that one. Another point to the communists. 

As we sailed down the narrower river between the branches of the Mekong, we kept hearing very loud bird song but we couldn’t spot any birds. This happened fairly regularly along the way.

Our guide told us that the bird sounds are the mating calls of the Vietnamese Swift, but the sound is fake.

It’s played through loudspeakers to entice the Swifts to build their nests there because it’s the nests they are after. This is because the nest of the Vietnamese swift is very valuable as it’s used to make birds nest soup, and so that’s why they want to attract them.

After two days I have given up trying to pronounce out guide’s name. She’s tried to teach me but my mouth just won’t go there. She’s called Ngoc, which means Pearl in Vietnamese. Put it in Google translate and listen. She said it helps to pretend you’re blowing up a balloon while saying it. It didn’t.

Strange things

This local dish was delicious, it’s called jumping chicken.

You’ve probably heard it’s more common name before and Brigitte obviously loves it. – Frogs legs!

Fruit Quiz

Good news. The people have voted and 83% voted in favour of the fruit quiz!

In the UK we have apples, pears, plums and er, er, that’s all I got. (Before you say Damson, Jeremy, it’s a plum).

Not a day goes by here without discovering another fruit I’ve never seen before.

Most fruits are always in season and the locals live off them. Pop into the street, pick some fruits, some herbs, some morning glory (It’s not rude, it’s water spinach), a few beansprouts. Add a few shrimp that they farm, a chicken or duck and they are totally self sufficient.

No supermarkets, no real need for food shops and it’s all really healthy. An, our fruit ambassador tour guide, said her grandparents are 105 and 103 years old and still work and that’s not at all unusual.

Today’s mystery fruit…

To make it easier this fruit has two common names, I will accept either.

Yet another early night. I’m not complaining as it’s snowing at home, but the humidity is draining and we’re up again early tomorrow to visit Can Tho floating market.

Middle of the Mekong – 23rd November 2024.