Down on the Delta, The Mekong, That Is

Got the Bus & Off We Go

One of the great things about traveling on a relatively smaller ship like AZAMARA QUEST is the fact that it draws so little water that it can enter ports that are too shallow for the usual vessels that carry anywhere upwards of 1200 passengers.  QUEST and its sister ship, JOURNEY, carry around 600 well treated, very well fed and cosseted and well pleased folks who are able to take their home away from home right into the center of ports that larger ships are forced to either access them by launch or send their passengers into the actual place by bus from a deepwater port an hour or two away.

Lots of Company 

Instead of having to take  a bus for a couple of extra hours to get to a place that we wanted to see we were able to jump on a coach at shipside and zip out toward the Mekong Delta, Vietnam’s Rice Bowl.  My first time down to the Delta on business was a little more than 20 years ago when some of my Singaporean business buddies and I went down there to try and get something going with the nascent shrimp aquaculture business that was getting big enough to explore overseas markets.  We were at the front edge of the cohort of businessmen from overseas that were moving Vietnam from a closed economy to one that played in the world marketplace.

Heard of Cowboys?  These Are Duckboys

The description of the tour said it would take two hours each way, to and from the Delta.  I found that amusing.  Back a long, long time ago in Hurry Up Vietnam Years it used to take up to two hours in line on a pot holed and overworked tarmac road waiting for passage on an open deck barge that served as a ferry to get across major branches of the Mekong.  I said, branches.  That is because we would go through the sit in a long line of cars, motos, trucks, country buses and animal drawn carts routine every time we came to a new river or large canal.  Bridges were luxury items.

Light Traffic Today

I mention this because it is a reminder that there has been so much progress in the past few decades in Vietnam.  Just think about how much time, gas, effort are wasted by cars sitting waiting for an inherently dangerous ferry to cross a very minor bit of water.  Don’t think about it for too long or it might chip away at your Western attitude of superiority when you reflect at how long you spend in endless traffic at home.

Back to the Mekong.  The trip was super.  This ain’t my first rodeo as they say back home in Texas but no matter how many places I have been lucky to see or trips off the main roads I have taken yesterday’s trip made me feel like a kid on an adventure.

Mekong Buddies

Apocalypse Now Anyone?

We used bus, 30 passenger wooden boat, 4 passenger horse cart, four passenger tippy  paddle powered river boat and foot to see and visit mini aquaculture barges,an island coconut candy factory in a grass shack, a snack bar complete with resident 12 foot long python for draping around your neck in a Kodak Moment, a trip down a narrow stream through a tropical tunnel of palms and a luxury rest stop that looked more like Bali than Vietnam.  How is that for a day trip?

Big Boat

Coconut Tortillas

World's Best Truck Stop

I am the last guy in the world that wants to be classed as a tourist.  I am a bona fide traveler and, yes, there is a significant difference.  However, if yesterday’s tourist treat where we took a tiny nibble out of the big enchilada called Vietnam makes me a tourist, so be it.  It was worth it.

There's a Helmsman in there Somewhere