Sex Flies and Videotape: Vietnam: Mekong Delta

I only have two days left on my month long visa to Vietnam, so I decide to book myself in to a two day tour of the Mekong Delta. I met a few people who had been down there, and the general trend was that they ended up staying for a week or two, and their trip likely involved getting lost for a few days.

And of course they loved it.

The tour itself was slightly on the disappointing side - half a day of bus riding, some visits to a honey farm [read - place where you can sample and buy honey products], a sweet factory [read - 5 minute demonstration on how they make the candy, then you can sample and buy product], and a short traditional musical number which has mostly Chinese influences down in that part of the country.

ProTip: Don't drink the bees. It hurts.

The next day was more interesting - visiting the largest floating market in Vietnam. Buyers and sellers congregate here and purchase various fruits and vegetables while small coffee and tea boats totter around selling to everyone else.

The sellers put a sample of their produce on a long pole on top of their boat so that you can see what type of goods they are selling. The tour guide tells us that unlike the floating market in Thailand - this one is very real and a popular way for the boat people to buy and sell their fruit and veggies, whereas in Thailand the floating market exists only for the tourists.

Keeping it real yo

And boats they do use. The view from the bus to and from the largest city in Mekong delta gives view to countless waterways, all of them with many many boats in them - barges with building supplies, fruit seller boats, and just people getting around. For some people in Vietnam, these waterways are a serious route of transport - and I find that particularly wonderful in this age of trains, planes and automobiles.