Life on the Mekong

We woke up this morning anchored in Cái Bệ and after enjoying breakfast on our veranda, we headed down to take the sampan tour on the Mekong.  With Viking river cruises, all of your excursions are included and some days there are two to three excursions. Our morning excursion took us to a shop where they make rice paper and coconut candy.

Water hyacinth is planted on the banks of the Mekong 

to help with the erosion of the river bank.

Sometimes it can be so thick, it gets stuck on 

the motor of the smaller boats and the captain 

has to get in the water to clear it off

This is how the professionals make rice paper…

And this is how I do it…definitely won’t be giving up my day job!

Next was coconut candy…more of the consistency of caramel.  Each piece is hand cut and doubled wrapped…layer touching candy is rice paper so it is edible.

A popular snack in Vietnam is popped rice which they also made here.

We tried some rice wine and did the traditional Vietnamese toast.

Another popular drink in Vietnam is snake wine.  Thu said it was a man’s drink. Did a hard pass on trying it…especially after seeing it!

After lunch on the boat while we sailed from Cái Bé to Sa Đéc, we took another sampan to town where we visited the home of the Chinese aristocratic family from the novel “The Lover”.

Since there are no official docks in Vietnam on the Mekong, we have to use sampans.  Viking has their own sampans and brings them along the way while in Vietnam.

I’ve heard of the book and movie “The Lover” but have never seen or read it.  After seeing the house, I need to either read the book or watch the movie.

We took a stroll through the market and the pictures do not do justice to the experience, sights…and smells.  There was a lot of live animals as well as what can only be described as butcher shops without the refrigeration…this was definitely the most interesting market I have ever visited in all my travels. I realized after getting back to the ship and going through my photos that I didn’t take a lot as I was so mesmerized by what I was seeing.

Yes, that is a snake she is holding…it is a delicacy in Vietnam

After the market, we sat in a local “bar” for drinks.  There was a funeral taking place across the stream from us.

In Vietnam, boats are looked as animals and so they paint eyes on the front to scare away other animals like crocodiles. If there is any damage to either eye, it is bad luck to sail the boat until the eye is repaired.