Canoeing on the Mekong Delta - highlight of trip

By Carole Goldsmith Copyright ©2011  All Rights reserved  

Canoeing on the Mekong Delta was one of the many highlights of my trip to the Delta on Thursday. Ladies in traditional red outfits and hat took the helm and rowed us along past the mangroves and greenery surrounding the water ways. People were waving from their houses on the water, I heard  dogs barking and roosters crowing in the distance. Boats passed displaying their wares on a stick at the mast, showing us what they sold.

Mr Hai - Fat Man - that is what he said his boss called him, was our tour guide for the day and an excellent job he did too. From Ho Chi Mingh City, we travelled by bus to the Delta's edge and then by motorboat along the Delta. We visited the bee farm and were shown bees in action. Then to our delight we had tea with honey and lime and the staff encouraged to buy honey goods. I bought some royal jelly  that is supposed to make me younger, if I put it on my skin. According to the folks at the bee farm, the Royal Jelly is food for the queen bee and she lives 40 times longer than the worker / drone bee.  

Then we went to the coconut candy place and a lady was working over the hot plate making rice paper - she mixed rice flour with wheat flour and water and was pouring some of the mixture on the hot plate. Voila after a couple of minutes the rice paper was made and a man was placing it over baskets for drying. Rice paper is used for a number of Vietnamese meals like vegetables and herbs in ricepaper - yum- delicious - I just love Vietnamese food. We also tried some coconut candy - also very tasty but it may extract a few fillings as quite sticky to the teeth.

We rode bicycles to the restaurant. I tried the bicycle, but I was a bit wobbly, so Mr Hai arranged a lift for me on the back of a motor scooter and that was a lot of fun. Lunch was in a grass hut and local fish was grilled or steamed. We had a Tiger beer, the local brand, some rice, meat, vegetables and a light soup. There were hammocks for us to rest in after lunch and that was fun.

On the bus trip back to Ho Chi Mingh City, we had a stop at a beautiful garden and enjoyed icecreams to cool us down on a hot day. All in all a wonderful day and fun for all.