Our first day waking up in Asia proper was in the Mekong Delta town of Can Tho. I mistakenly called the river the Mekong itself. I do believe it is the Bassac.
Corrie had wanted to see this specific floating market, the largest in the world I've heard, but at least the largest in this region.
We woke up early on the 27th so we could meet our guide for the day, Johnnie. That was what he told us to call him, but his name was something else. He was young and energetic and spoke English very well. He led us on bike to the boat we were going to take to the floating market, then led us on our little bike tour later on in the day. The best photographs come early in the morning, so that had us out at dawn.
We traveled slowly up the river until we got to the market zone, all the while Johnnie was regaling us with stories of the economic realities of modern Vietnam. At the market he showed us how to tell what was being sold on each boat: whatever the fruit or vegetable it was was tied up high on a pole on board, visible for a good area around.
The meat vendors zipped around in smaller boats, going where they felt they'd be needed--their cargo was more perishable than other vendors'.
One thing that was noticeable was that the river market in the picture above was almost like a wholesale market, with maybe the majority of the buyers being folks who were going to be bringing the produce up the many tributaries to villagers and families up in the delta region off away from the main artery.
After that we moored our boat, grabbed the bikes, and hit the road, riding around a populated area that could loosely be called Can Tho. There were irrigation areas and farmers and rice-noodle makers. Below is a flooded plain getting ready to be drained and sown--rice being the main crop.
At the place we went for breakfast they let us make rice noodles. The process is multi-tiered and intense: first you have a hot fire going that heats a cauldron of water. On top of the cauldron is a sheet of latex or skin stretched tight, on top of which a pancake like batter of rice flour and water is spread even. It's covered momentarily, cooked, removed with a bamboo apparatus that looks like a tiki-torch, and laid down onto a bamboo mat to cool off and dry.
Within two days it will be put through a slicer and noodles will be the result. Corrie and I got to try each part of the process, if not with the same exact example.
Many farmers were growing flowers for the Tet holiday, which was in a few weeks and marks Asia's New Year.
Johnnie took us to a place that farms fruit and coconuts and catfish. We went over a monkey bridge above one of the catfish holes and dropped in food. That was a cool scary-movie effect of hundreds of fish spouting for grub.
Here's a "monkey bridge":
This is a bridge made of reclaimed wood that spans one of the tributaries. It costs nothing and serves a very real purpose.
Back to the river boat and eventually back to the hotel saw us pretty spent. It had been a long day and it was only 1:30. Here's a neat shot of one of the dynamic buildings along the river:
So, our plan had been to go from Can Tho all the way to Phnom Penh, the capitol city of Cambodia. That proved unfeasible. The number of miles, or kilometers, it is from Can Tho to Phnom Penh is not very scary, but we Americans have a tendency to imagine freeways being the way folks move about by car.
This isn't the case. Imagine driving for hundreds of miles on a two lane road and that's pretty much it. No freeways. Just one road...
So, instead of the entire way, we went halfway to a border town called Chou Doc. We were pretty ready to rock once we jumped off the bus. We got a ride to a hotel we didn't have reservations at, and were sent away. The pair of drivers (we were each riding on separate motor-bikes) took us to another hotel where we were able to get a room.
Here's a picture of Chou Doc from a balcony attached to our hotel:
We left the next morning on a boat. It took a while to get to the crossing, and Cambodia proper.
Buh-bye Vietnam! 'Til next week!
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