Christmas on the Mekong

On Christmas eve day we set out on a day trip on the Mekong River. It started with a bus ride that was supposed to be 1 1/2 hrs to the delta region south of Saigon. To our dismay, the bus was 1/2 hr late and the ride closer to 3 hrs. long. Finally we reached a small city along the river called My Tho where we boarded our boat. We were supposed to see a floating market along the river but we were so late that it had already ended.
On either side of the river were ramshackled and run down shacks on stilts where people live. There's laundry hanging out and children playing in the muddy water. The poverty is striking. In typical tour group fashion, we were carted about the town and fed information about the local population. We stopped to see coconut candy, rice paper and puffed rice being made by the local people. While interesting, it's overrun with tourists and hawkers.

We set out for our lunch destination on an island in the river but were quickly thwarted by the low tide. Our boat was stuck and required a slow and painful tow from another boat for over an hour. What started out as quite comical had turned sour in the hot afternoon sun. We got off our broken down boat and boarded small dug out row boats. Little Vietnamese women with conical hats rowed us down a small canal. We finally reached our lunch destination well into the afternoon. It may have just been our intense hunger but lunch was actually delicious! (fried pork with rice and steamed vegetables, chicken soup, spring rolls, and fresh fruit)

We bicycled from our lunch spot to the river where our boat was again waiting (with a tow boat) to take us back to the bus for a 3 hr. ride to Saigon. While interesting and photo worthy the day was a serious excercise of patience and "rolling with the punches". Lesson learned: Do not book full-day group tours of any sort.