Mekong Delta (Vietnam)

After a couple of days in Saigon we headed further south for a 2 day tour of the Mekong Delta. It was much more relaxed and quiet than most of the other Vietnamese cities we visited and we very much enjoyed the laid back attitude. One of the attractions was to visit the many “floating markets”. Yes picture the farmers market with boats instead of booths and you will get the idea. Little canoe type boats meander through the vendor boats of produce picking and choosing what they wish to buy. Sometimes you can see watermelons or sacks of onions being thrown out the portholes of the boats to the awaiting purchaser. All of the scraps were thrown in the surrounding water which made it a little nasty, but I’m sure the fish enjoyed the good eats. Yes there are fish in these murky waters.

After the hustle and bustle of the floating markets we enjoyed a paddle through the mangroves. Perhaps we enjoyed the paddle more as we were not the ones paddling. Once again, the women were paddling the boats. I wonder where all the men are?


Rumour has it that monsters roam the waters in this area. Naturally this scared timid Kenny. Who wouldn’t be scared with just a little straw conical hat for protection? Many of the boats in this area have massive eyes painted on them to ward off the sea monsters. Unfortunately our boat did not have such defenses.

And we thought the bridges in Laos were bad. I really don’t think they can get much smaller than this. Luckily all of us crossed this “Monkey Bridge” without incident.




We were also able to visit a coconut candy making factory, a banana whiskey distillery (even the Irish and the Canadians had to admit it was good whiskey…of course after a few taste tests), a rice factory and a rice paper factory. Here is a picture of the rice paper factory. These sheets are being pulled off the griddle and being placed on bamboo slats to be transferred outdoors to dry in the sun. You can imagine what a hot job this is particularly as there is no A/C in this factory!