Sea days are – well – sea days. Won’t bore you with details, but there are at least good lecturers aboard: a Buddhism lecturer, a Vietnam/Phillipines/Geographical lecturer and a Titanic lecturer. So our days are not empty.
First port is Phu My for Saigon – but we’ve been there enough, so we chose to do a (horrors!!!) ship tour to the Mekong Delta. We’ve done that area before too, but what the heck? It was actually reasonably priced too. We queue up with everyone else in the theater and are finally called to go to our bus.
Our guide is Vingh, who is from Saigon, but comes out here for ship tours. He’s knowledgeable and nice, and makes for good listening on our 3.5 hour drive to the Mekong. Traffic isn’t all too bad, but then again, here, as in Hanoi, there is a new highway which just opened about 18 months ago, makes the drive much, much faster. Unfortunately for us, we’re delayed a bit when a car hits the bus as we are making a turn. Really – we are turning left at a huge intersection, did the car really think he could get around us on the left? Between us and the median? Apparently his depth perception is about as good as mine!
So, we sit for about 10 minutes and learn a little bit about how the Vietnam system works. If you believe Vingh, the bus driver and car driver are negotiating how much it will cost to go away. They don’t want to call Police because that will take too long and cost too much – if you solve it yourself you get off much easier. A cop does come up (it is a busy intersection) but both drivers eventually figure it out – I guess – because we are on our way shortly after that.
We actually drive right past the city and then off the new highway and onto the old roads south toward Mekong. The road is lined with rice fields and fish farms (raising Tilapia of all things) and great scenery which keeps us occupied for the entire ride. 
We arrive at our boat and hop out to take a 30 minute boat ride down the Mekong. We add on another “local” guide who tells us all about the Mekong and the people who live here as we sail across the muddy waters and onto the big island to visit a coconut candy factory and the bee pollen farm.
On the island we are treated to honey bee tea with kumquats. While I’m not a tea fan, this is really good. I might try this at home with our Hanoi Elite tea gift. Hmmmm…… We also have fried banana chips, dried ginger and peanut candy things. All are excellent – except the ginger stuff. Of course they are selling bags of them, but we pass the bag seems a bit small for what you’re getting. And really, do we need more sweets?
They are also selling royal jelly made from the bee pollen. It will soften your skin and you can eat it too! Bargain! It also cures just about everything – you name it: “It is helped to get younger, anti0burnt due to environmentol impact and especially change of women’s hormone (during menopauce)” Yeah – I need that! Ha ha.
After the tea, we walk around the huts, watch the guy with the cobra (no thank you, don’t need that on my neck) and head over to the coconut candy huts. We get a demonstration of how they crack open the cocnuts, take out the fruit, boil it and then turn it into candy. There are some machines here we could use in the Pretzel Factory! Hmmmm…..
We get warm pieces of candy that are so good! So good in fact, we decide to buy 2 types – the peanut and the chocolate. There goes our no sweets! Oh well.
Back to our boat we go, for a 20 minute ride to the next island where we walk through a lovely fruit orchard and gardens (and past hundreds of school children, obviously here on school trips, all waving and saying hello and giggling).
Next we visit a traditional house where Vingh explains how the family lives, the ceremonial front rooms with the expensive furniture pieces that are altars for prayer, then into the back of the house where everyone sleeps and works and actually lives. Pretty stark and incredible that they live like this – but it is a typical set up throughout Vietnam. You realize how spoiled most of us are in how and where we live our lives.
Then onto our little row boat with two lady rowers who take us through this awesome little canal, lined with bamboo trees. We pass by local houses, skirt a local road, and listen to local music coming from somewhere out there in the neighborhood. It is really a lovely little ride, quiet and beautiful.
As we are nearing the dock, the rear rower lady says “bye, bye. bye, bye. Money now.” Ha ha! Of course we tip each of them, but too funny she’s reminding us!
Back on the big boat for 10 minutes, we’re taken to another island to sample fruit and listen to traditional music. We all get share plates of bananas, jack fruit, milk fruit,pomelo, dragon fruit and those weird hairy looking lychee type things.
Very refreshing! Then back on the big boat we go, sailng past all the floating houses and floating fish farms and small floating gardens. What a way to live!
Past the large sailing boats, the ferries going to and fro across the Mekong, to the dock where we say farewell to our “local” guide and hop back on the bus for lunch – late lunch! it’s already past 1 by now. But we’ve had so many snacks, it isn’t like we are starving or anything.
Its a short drive (maybe 20 minutes) to the lunch place – The 
Mekong Rest Stop - which is an enormous outdoor restaurant with hundreds of seats – and an obvious tour stop. But oh the food! Not the traditional tourist fare – or if it is, who cares, it is all excellently prepared and served. And it is a feast! They bring so much food to the table, it isn’t funny. First we have Fried Shrimp & Pork spring rolls,
then Crispy fried “Elephant Ear” fish (oh my gosh, that fish is so good! The waitress serves it to us so we don’t have to try to figure it out on our own! Thank you!).
Next up is the fried ball of sticky rice. I couldn’t get a
picture of the way it comes out of the kitchen, it’s like a huge blown up brown paper ball. The waitress literally cuts it with scissors then wraps it up into little packets. This stuff was the best – it was sort of sweet and gooey and totally delicious. It is one of those dishes that is really hard to share with others you don’t know – because you just want to eat the whole thing yourself! (I got lucky because our German table mates weren’t too enthused with it, so they left lots, which I got to scarf down at the end!).
The food parade continues with Grilled shrimp (whole, heads on), then Cantonese fried rice that had lots of little vegetable pieces in it, and then grilled spare ribs. Did I say feast? More like gluttony!
The final main dish was the Chinese Hot pot. It was packed full of fish and seafood and veggies. Really good and totally filling. For dessert – like we needed it – were lotus seed pods soaked in a sugar syrup. Wow!
We wash it all down with beer – ba ba ba (333) – and sit around the detritus of our lunch just trying to digest all our food while enjoying the breezes coming through the pavillion. Phew. Who needs dinner?
After our alotted time (we actually cut it down by 30 minutes – because who wants to walk around and shop in these shops for an extra 30 minutes!) we all make it back to the bus, virtually catatonic from that great lunch. We amuse ourselves on the way back staring out the window at the passing scenery, and of course, the passing scooters packed with the typical variety of stuff Vietnamese carry around – including water – yes, those red things are cases of water bottles.
Right before the rest stop, Vingh comes down the aisle and gives us samples of these fire roasted cashews. They are so good! At the rest stop is a convenience store, so after the restroom (well, Ed’s restroom, I’m waiting for the ship!), we shop a bit. We find some more reasonable banana chips and get another beer for the road, but we can’t find the cashews anywhere. As we get back on the bus, we ask Vingh where we can buy the nuts – and he says “right here, they are mine!” What? He and his wife are starting their own business with the cashews and something else (I forget now), so he’s got 2 bags to sell. Perfect! We’re in! They are $10 for 1/2 kilo, pricey, sort of, but they are cashews. He says the tour business is ok, but….you know… better to have back up. Smart guy!
As we head back to the ship, Vingh explains that he’s been trying to get his car drivers license, but it is hard and expensive. He took the test the other day and failed, so now he needs more driving lessons, but it is costly. He wants to drive the car because it will be easier for the family (he admits that the whole family – 4 all together – ride on the scooter together). But it is hard driving a car in Vietnam (evidence the bus wreck earlier!). He talks about how the tour group operates, what they do, etc. Just nice conversation that keeps us occupied for the entire drive back.
We end up back around 5:45 – full day tour – and very nice and scenic. We’re glad we chose to do it– ship’s tour and all!
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