The Mekong Delta

The Mekong Delta is the heart and soul of Southeast Asia.

The Mekong River is also called Cuu Long Giang or the river of the nine dragons (the river has 9 tributaries which flow into the sea). This river is 4.180 Km long and it is one of the longest ones in Asia.
From Saigon you can get different tours to visit the delta and also to see how the locals live there. You can also cross to Cambodia by boat through this river.



There are different people living on the Mekong… they are Vietnamese, Jemers, Chinese or Cham. Therefore, there are also different religions such as Buddhism, Catholicism, Islam and the sects of Cao Dai and Hoa Hao.



We decided to cross to Cambodia by boat and then take a 2 day trip.
We started our trip with rain (of course) …we took a bus that brought us to Chau Doc, first stop. From there we took a boat to visit the local factories. In one of them they produced rice paper… and it is edible!! It is quite funny as back at home we just use rice as “rice”. They wrap sweets and spring rolls with this rice paper… You should have seen the girls wrapping it!! So fast!







After the factories we went to the floating market. It was funny to see how there is a market on the sea! They live on the boats but they also have their work there.
To let you know what they sell they have a big stick on the boat where the item for sell is hanging … I’ll explain… for example… if there is a banana at the top of the stick it means that teh boat is selling bananas, very clever!!

All the boats have two big eyes painted at the front.. the locals told us that this is to protect themselves from the crocodiles!! Actually there are no crocodiles anymore here but the tradition of painting them have been kept until now.



After all that and a nice lunch we took the bus to a border city… a great day that showed us the life of the locals living in the river.

The second day started visiting a fish farm. They have a cage of fishes under their houses… very funny! Just beside this farm there was a fish food factory. Then they feed the fish there and later it is sold in the local market.



After the fish farm we stopped at Cai Be Hoa Phuoc village. This is a very different village to the others and its citizens are Muslims. They showed us their houses and even invite us in for a cup of tea  All the houses are built very high in order to face the flood tides and high levels of the water during the rainy season.

Then we changed to a bigger boat in order to cross to the neighbour country…Cambodia.
We have crossed countries by bus, by train and by plane but it is our first time to do it by boat!! From Vietnam to Cambodia… same same but different!!! As they say here.




More pictures of the Mekong Delta experience!!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27523343@N06/?saved=1