Day 19 October 14

Wow, Saturday already. We have been in Vietnam for 18 days already. It has gone by very quickly. This morning after stretching for Alan and breakfast for both of us, we were off on the sampans to Vinh Long.  This is another small settlement down another canal off of the Mekong River. The river has split into two branches, and we are on the north branch. It is no longer as wide as it was but is still full of water hyacinths. Along the banks is thick vegetation, much more like we imagined Vietnam to be, and much more like the pictures we saw on the nightly news shows in the 1960s and early 1970s.

The first stop in Vinh Long where we were greeted by cages of pythons.

We visited a family rice wine business.  Not only do they make rice wine through fermentation, but they make rice wrappers and rice noodles by hand. It is very labor intensive and was really interesting to watch the extremely delicate wrapper being made.

The rice wine varies from perfectly clear, to having herbs, ginger, or banana seeds in it, to being fermented with, I think, 11 poisonous snakes which have been killed, gutted, and placed in the alcohol for five years. We tried the cheaper clear wine (not something I enjoyed) but the snake wine is very expensive by Vietnamese standards and usually only served when you want to impress someone, like your in-laws.

We then moved on a short way to where a man was making coconut taffy.  It, too, is labor intensive and must be stirred in a large wok for 45 minutes non-stop. We tasted a piece, and it is extremely sweet and extremely sticky. We then watched puffed rice candy being made. It looks like rice krispie treats using puffed rice, caramel, and peanuts.  Again, it was very labor intensive, very sweet, and very sticky.

After jasmine tea and samples of the candy and other goodies, we were given a chance to shop.  The store has everything from cobra balm to cobras fermenting in alcohol. We passed on buying anything, but many of our group found things they could not live without. Back on the sampans and back on the boat to cool down and have lunch.

This afternoon’s trip was to Tien Loi Island. BJ opted out but Alan went. We went to two different islands in the Mekong. On the first, we walked through groves of pomelos, kumquats, jackfruit, and young durian trees without the infamous foul smelling fruit. Then we stopped to visit a man who makes fish traps. He places 50 of them in the river using snails as bait. A day later he pulls them up and harvests shrimp, crabs, and fish. This earns him about $12 a day.

We went back to the sampan and crossed the river where we watched a woman making cement flowerpots. This earns her about $14 a day. We then walked across the island to a nursery where they were creating topiary and bonsai and were also grafting jackfruit onto bigger stems thus saving about 5 years of growing time until they were ready to yield fruit. Then another walk to a small canal where we boarded small, narrow, unstable row boats, each one holding three people. These were rowed on the canal before returning to the sampan.

Tonight is the final night aboard the ship, and tomorrow we go to My Tho (where we are docked tonight) and then go by bus to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).