Left Saigon in a minibus with TNK Travel a little after 8am. Headed for Mỹ Tho, where we boarded a motorboat and started up the mighty Mekong. Even the short trip to Mỹ Tho market gave us a taste of what the Mekong is to the folk who live on and beside it. There were boats loaded with all manner of produce and people in their doorways peeling vegetables, washing, peeing, etcetera. The market was similar to others we've visited, but it was interesting to see things we haven't known and have a guide to tell us what they were.
Once we got to the river proper, we saw lots of huge craft - huge barges with great piles of sand, no doubt bound for building sites in Saigon. Each one had someone constantly dipping water from the river and throwing it over the sand to stop it from blowing away. Also, big boats were transporting live fish. Most of the boats have eyes painted on the front (apparently to scare off the monsters we were told, or as Google says, because fishermen believe the boat is a living being that needs eyes to see, protect itself, and guide its owners safely through the water).
At one stage, we took a tiny boat rowed by two women through the jungle - water coconuts overhanging the canal. We later discovered that the fruit from the water coconuts is not eaten, but the leaves are used to make house roofs.
We had a few stops along the way. A honey farm where the bees were smaller than ours and seemed quite friendly. Got to cuddle a python there, or at least Alex and Richard did. Drank honey tea (green tea with honey, a squeeze of kumquat, and pollen). There were also tastes of coconut, ginger, lotus, sweet potato and a dried banana and peanut brittle, as well as some medicinal wine.
Next stop was a coconut candy-making factory. That was fascinating to see every step of the manufacture, with the bonus being having a taste.
Lunch was delicious. We had what we thought were Nem (Vietnamese spring rolls), but Thang (our guide) told us they're called Chả giò down here in the south. Also had rice ball cake. Walked back across the island to our boat and then motored back to Mỹ Tho to our minivan. The hour-or-so drive found most of us sleeping (perhaps a case of the medicinal wine and the hot afternoon). Stopped to photograph a Cao Dai temple- very beautiful.
Fun Fact: Apparently there are two types of silkworms in Vietnam. One eats mulberry leaves and spins yellow cocoons, and the other eats tapioca leaves and spins white cocoons.
Mai Quoc Nam Tourist Apartments were a bit of a surprise. Rather than a "little" homestay, this one can accommodate 20 to 30 people, usually in open thatched stilt rooms, some perched over the water. Ours are a little more private, having half walls and then lattice. A pleasant afternoon was spent sitting out the front watching life on the river. So many boats and so many styles of boat carrying all sorts of things along the river. The people are very friendly - a little girl in a Đò (pronounced door) waving to us as she goes past. ( Đò being a small wooden river boat used to ferry people, goods, or bicycles across waterways - one of the most common traditional craft types in the Mekong Delta)
"Beer o'clock" was Medicinal and Banana Wine with our guide Thang (pronounced Tongue) and Mr Quong the boat driver. - pistachios, ginger, and mulberries (stuff that we have to use up before we go home on Wednesday). All very pleasant, as the sun sets behind the coconut palms.
