I was grateful that this was not our ferry
The coconut palms that have their fruit "downstairs"
Coconuts for sale
A shrimp farmer's hut
Fresh fish is delivered through the window into the market
A temple for a whale
Not my favorite beach!
Houses in one of the villages - I particularly enjoyed the bridges
Mr Minh on one of the more exciting bridges we crossed - those planks were very flexible!
Lunch for the road workers. These are the sort of little fish that I have eaten several times.
My Sai Gon Delta Trip – 15th June 2008
When I was in HCMC I went for a day trip down to the Sai Gon Delta. Apart from an entry about Monkey Island I have not written up my notes about the day and have decided to belatedly do so. I choose to go to the Sai Gon delta rather than the more popular Mekong for several reasons. It seemed with only a day to spare that it might be a better bet than a rushed bus trip down to the Mekong and back. I was also attracted to the idea of getting away from the tourist crowds and having an individual tour with Mr Minh. Aspects of the day turned out to be interesting but I am not sure that I would make the same decision again.
We set off early in the morning on Mr Minh’s trusty little motorbike heading south-east from the city. For a long way we traveled through an area where a new city is being built. Multitudes of new high-rise apartments are clustered together in groups. Each group had up to a dozen identical buildings. This area is being created for the affluent and looked much more like Singapore than what I have seen of Viet Nam. The immaculate, sterile streets did not really appeal to me but Mr Minh clearly saw this as evidence of the great strides towards modernization that are being made by Viet Nam.
We caught a car ferry over a broad section of the river as we made our way south. When I took a photo of a woman wearing a conical hat on the ferry Mr Minh told me why they are still so popular. As well as being cool and shady they are effective rain shelters, useful as a fan and can be turned into a vessel for carrying water or produce from the market. They are still commonly worn by many people and are very much part of the fabric of Viet Nam. I have (so far) resisted buying one for myself. Sometimes I see busloads of tourists wearing them but somehow they just look a bit too silly on western heads.
The landscape changed as we made our way down the islands of the delta. For a long way we traveled through swampy land that was divided between shrimp farms and a type of coconut that grows in water. Tiny huts built of palm fronds were dotted about on small islands in the shrimp farms. I thought that these people must be making only making a subsistence living but Mr Minh assured me that the farmers are very rich. The huts are so they can sleep beside the ponds to protect them from thieves. The frond houses are also preferred by many people because they let the breeze through and are cooler than the concrete houses. Every time we passed a big house, some of which are quite palatial, he declared that it would be owned by a shrimp farmer.
The coconuts are grown for the fronds and the fruit. I was confused by Minh’s description – ordinary coconuts have the fruit “upstairs” but these ones have them “downstairs”. At first I thought that he was talking about the roots but he meant that the fruit grows near the water level. We stopped to see some of the coconuts being sold beside the road. They are clustered together in spheres about two feet in diameter. The milk and flesh are consumed and the husks are used for the cooking burners.
As we neared the mangrove jungle the road became increasingly rough and potholed. I think they have given up on maintaining this road because a new one is in the process of being built alongside it. At times the potholes were so numerous that they became the road. By the time we got to Monkey Island my bum was certainly ready for a rest from the motorbike seat. I have no idea how you spent three days on the back of a bike Nick. I have already described Monkey Island – apart from being a welcome relief from sitting on the unsprung seat it does not have a lot to recommend it. I dutifully admired all of the dusty exhibits in a small museum. I have now seen enough tatty stuffed animals to last me several lifetimes. The toilet behind the museum was certainly the most daunting that I have had to face yet but “when you have got to go ….”
The mangrove jungle was pretty amazing. They are tall trees, 30 – 40 feet high with densely tangled aerial root systems. Looking at them bought to mind the war movies of soldiers struggling through the swamps with the rifles held over their heads and small wooden canoes silently wending through little channels. Apparently many prisoners were held here during the war and afterwards it was used for re-education camps. There are still prisons in the area. Given the terrain and the crocodiles and snakes it would be a very difficult place to escape from.
As we neared Can Gio we passed through a desolate area of salt farms. The people live in long, low frond huts amongst the murky evaporation ponds. It was easy to see why most of the salt that we buy here is quite brown with a lot of grit included. It looked like a very hard way to make a living.
Near to a fishing village we passed a modern temple where fishermen seek protection from the sea gods. In the village there was another temple complete with the skeleton of a large sea creature. I think from the skeleton and photos that it was some sort of a whale but Mr Minh’s explanation was much more mystical. Apparently when it was beached it created a great deal of interest and a temple was built in its honor. I found the story a little difficult to follow but I think that it is now worshipped in some way.
The fish market in the village was fascinating. The boats unloaded directly into the market – you certainly could not get fresher fish! Some of the locals seemed a bit annoyed as Mr Minh grabbed various flapping or scuttling creatures from their bowls for me to admire.
We made our way down to the beach. I think that this was expected to be the highlight of my day so I tried hard to be appreciative but it was pretty horrible. A long stretch of grubby, rubbish strewn, sand led to the murky brown sea. I was very pleased that I had already said that I did not want to swim – it looked positively toxic. Hundreds of Vietnamese people were enjoying a day at the beach. Despite the vast area they were all crammed into a small space with tightly packed umbrellas, tables and chairs. In this space they were happily talking, sleeping, eating and drinking copious amounts of beer. All of the rubbish from their activities was thrown around their feet. It was a most insalubrious place; hot, smelly, filthy and expensive. It costs 100 VND for a chair. I am afraid that I chose not to even sit down so we headed back to HCMC earlier than we had planned.
On the way back we stopped to look at some of the villages built in the jungle and on the edges of the river. I was fascinated by the inventive little wooden bridges built over the canals. At first I was reluctant to cross over them concerned that they were made for people of Vietnamese stature but Mr Minh urged me to give it a try so, deciding that the worst that could happen was a fall into the muddy brown water, I made it safely across and back. The people in the villages seemed very poor. Some of their little stick and frond houses seemed so insubstantial that it was hard to imagine them surviving any rough weather. I felt a bit uncomfortable having a tourist’s look at their lives but they responded warmly and were keen for me to photograph their children.
We also spent some time watching two of the road workers catching fish in the drain beside the road. One waded along extracting little fish from a long net which he then tossed for the other to catch in a bucket. Apparently they do this every day and get enough fish to feed themselves well.
I would not describe most of this area as beautiful but it was an interesting day which gave me an opportunity to see another aspect of this fascinating country.
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