There were people bathing at the river’s edge, collecting water, some people had already started work and were loading up freight on their boats. A number of boats passed us laden with fruits, as they were off to the market. The river was really teaming with life and in that early morning sunlight it was both fascinating and fantastic to watch, far different than the early morning rush hour in Edinburgh. I sat there watching this strange, to me, world going by and I was stuck by the relaxed nature of the people working and travelling. They sat quietly on their boats steering them up river, they washed and ate together on the back of boats with smiles on their faces, even those on the bank that were loading up freight, in what was already a very hot morning, appeared happy and at ease. It looked a far more appealing work morning, than those in Edinburgh, where everyone is rushing about, stressing, arguing, and bumping into people. The floating market was an impressive sight. Rows upon rows of boats tied together, people scampering from one to the other, exchanging bags of fruit for money or other bags of fruit. The boats ranged in size from pretty large to tiny row boats, all off them crammed full of fruits of every colour of the rainbow. Some boats had only one type of fruit, where as others had several different kinds. We discovered that the boats had a very interesting way of advertising what they were selling, so those looking to buy knew where to go. Each boat placed a large pole on the boat pointing up into the sky, on top of which they tied a sample of the fruit they are selling. We could see pole after pole of pineapples, durians and dragon-fruits, some poles hoisted up several different types of fruit. The people that trade there range from local business people who own shops, market stores and restaurants and cafes. You also get local people in small row boats doing their family shop. Smaller boats carrying bottles of water, cans of fizzy juice and snacks service the market. They zip in and out of the larger boats selling to the families on the fruit boats as well as those tourists like us who have come along to watch. It truly was a colourful, unique, thriving hub of commerce and business in the most glorious of settings.
There was, of course, only one thing left to do, get involved! We pulled up alongside a larger barge crewed by an older man and his wife. He was selling pineapples. I really dislike pineapples, but this was all about the experience. Our guide Tung spoke a few words to the old man and he pulled out a rather large knife. Had negotiations gone rather badly, I thought? No, not at all. He put his knife to work on a large pineapple. He then with the skill of a cosmetic surgeon began, skinning and slicing the fruit. While he did so we were allowed onto his barge to have a look around and see the large stock of pineapples that were stored in the ship’s hold. By the time we had finished looking round the old man had skilfully turned the pineapple into four fruit sticks with the fruit stem acting as a stick. I dislike pineapple, but knew it would be rude to say no, so took a rather tentative bight. It was delicious, so juicy and fresh and tasty! I ate the lot and really wished I could have another.
Sadly that was the end of our visit to the floating market and we made for the shore. Our boat pulled up to a jetty not far away, as the van with the bikes had left Can Tho to meet us there. Once on shore we had to work our way through another market, this one on land and covered by a giant marquee. I think several of the fruits on display had been bought not that long ago from the floating market in the river behind it, however, there was much more than fruit sold here. Fresh fish lay on cold wet trays, some eels and live fish swam about in buckets nearby, tables stacked high with fresh meat including chicken, ducks, pig and beef also filled the market. The large number of flies buzzing from one piece of meat to the next made me lose my appetite, but no one else seemed to mind as people pushed past one another to buy their shopping. There were also trinkets and household goods on display, as well as fresh flowers and herbs and spices. It was a thriving market and wasn’t even 9am. We emerged from the marquee into blazing hot sunshine, it must have already been past 30c and we quickly began to slap on the factor 50.
We set off on the bikes for our last 25km before finishing the tour. We were all slightly quieter today. I think we were all a little sad that this amazing adventure and experience was close to coming to an end. However, there was one last call we had to make on our way through the jungle paths. Tung brought us to the house an old and slightly eccentric Vietnamese man who was well known in the area for producing snake wine. Basically he catches snakes in his garden or in some cases buys them, and then while still alive drops them into a large glass container of rice wine, where the poor snake drowned. He then buries them in his garden for a year to ferment, if you drink it any sooner then it is poisonous to humans and will kill you!! After a year he pulls it from the ground and you drink it by the shot. The old man was thrilled to see us and quickly put glasses in our hand, which were filled with snake wine from one of the several glass containers resting outside his house. Each container carrying the pickled remains of a snake or in some cases several snakes. The first one we tasted contained the most poisonous snake you can find in Vietnam, I can’t remember the name. We were told a legend that a Vietnamese prince drank the snake wine then slept with five different women impregnating four of them. Stephen got very curious at this point! We then tried another type of snake wine and then returned to the first one. It tastes just like whisky! After a brief tour we were sent on our way on the bikes, a little wobbly from the wine. We finished about an hour later and our cycle tour was over. We were sad, but elated to have done it. By the time we finished we had cycled over 200km in the 4 days and seen so much of the Mekong Delta and jungle. We then piled into the van and started our 4 hour journey back to Ho chi Min City. We had one last treat in store when we stopped for lunch after 2 hours of driving and we fed another deep fried elephant Ear Fish. Lovely.
Finally we made it back to Ho chi Min City where we met up with a good friend of mine from university days, Anne Marie, who now loves in Ho Chi Min and was very kindly letting us stay at her spare flat.
What I learnt from our cycle tour was that the people of the Mekong Delta are some of the friendliest, kindest and most welcoming people I have ever come across. They smile, say hello and are thrilled that you have come to see them. The food was awesome. We didn’t realise how good until we ate at a Vietnamese restaurant later that day and although we enjoyed it, it was nothing compared to the local, rural food that we had enjoyed. The countryside was some of the most beautiful and exquisite I have ever seen with palm trees, rivers, bushes and rice fields. It was hard to stay on the bike sometimes, because your eyes were following something in the jungle.
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