These are photos I took today when I left Saigon and went to the Mekong Delta. A group of us, students and Faculty (and hangers on like me) went in an air conditioned (thank goodness) bus driving for two hours to reach the town of Mekong....much smaller (20,000 pop.) than this city and very pleasant with shady treed streets and sitting of course on the river. On the way we went to a gorgeous Vietnamese market where we walked through open mouthed at the varieties of fruits and vegetables and always lots of different types of rice. I also took from the bus window photos of the motor bikes zooming into Saigon to work. (We left the ship at 8 am so right into the rush hour.)
We took quite a large boat down the river from Mekong for about ten minutes and then transferred after a short and very hot walk through fairly thick jungle to another part of the delta and travelled from then on in canoes paddled by one man or woman while another steered from the back. Our ship librarian (and friend) Beth and I were in one and Nilo and Nasim (my Karachi 'sister' and husband) in another. The students and other 'adults' (!) were about five to a boat. Our boats left the wooden pier last but you have no idea of the competition there was to keep in the lead. Our lady captain was one of the most aggressive and at one point as she was slamming through tied up empty canoes we became stuck and in her efforts to free us we nearly capsized! The water is shallow and very muddy so we were relieved to have kept afloat!
We leave for Catien park at 7 am tomorrow so must go to bed. The photos above are a woman working on an old Singer type sewing machine in the market, Nilo with fan, fruits and rice in the market, two delightful young boys we found on our way to a jungle lunch, canoes in the delta and our 'captain' on paddling her own canoe at great speed!
Will write in more depth on our return. We are away for 2 nights. Bon Soir....there is a really French feel still about this part of Vietnam. By the way I prefer the name Saigon to the correct Ho Chi Minh City, hence the label for this blog!
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