Mekong Delta

Traveled down to My Tho, about 2 hours south of Saigon, for a tour of the Mekong delta. We were dropped off at the My Tho boat landing, where we met our guide Tiyen. She led us onto a flat boat (like the one we were on in Cambodia)and took us down the Mekong river, then back up to an island where we got off and walked through a small set of huts. The first hut was a coconut candy maker -- the process took coconut meat from the actual coconut, then boiled it in a wok for two hours to reduce the coconut meat into a paste, then flavored the paste with chocolate, honey, etc. and then stretched the paste into a strip, cut it and then wrapped it in rice paper. Very good (if very touristy).

Also visited a beekeeper and had honey tea (along with a taste of rice wine). Then sampled some of the local fruits including dragon teeth, longon, papaya, and pineapple. Walked a ways inland, then got on a canoe-like boat and were paddled down a creek for about 15 minutes back to our long boat. This boat took us down river, then up another remote small river to a restaurant where they served us an elephant ear fish, fried in its entirety (except for the guts) and presented upright on a wooden platter. They pushed hard to have us buy snake for our lunch (which supposedly has many medicinal purposes) but we declined.

Our guide Tiyen has some interesting stories to tell. Her mother and brother live in Garden City, California -- her brother left Vietnam in April 1975, which means he worked for the Americans. She hasn't seen them since, and hasn't been to America. Her English is excellent, her Japanese is better (so we're told). We captured some good video of her talking about how most Vietnamese feel about Americans, at least in the south. Northerners are a bit more hostile to Americans, and Tiyen believes that is because they were bombed so extensively.

Back to our hotel to pick up our bags, then a taxi to the Hotel Majestic in all its colonial glory! Majestic is located right on the Saigon river at the end of Dong Khoi street, known as Rue Catinat in the French days.