Quick update. This is a “flashback” episode. The Idiots spent one week in Bali, two days in Saigon, then boarded the RV Amadara for an 8 day cruise up the Mekong from the Delta in Vietnam to Phnom Penh, Cambodia and then on to Siem Reap, the town nearest the ancient sites at Angkor Wat. Tomorrow the Idiots move on to Hanoi.
This episode is about an excursion from the Amadara about two weeks ago.
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The Idiots have never taken a cruise… and to be honest, as budget travelers and adventurers they’ve always felt a little superior to the cruise crowd. But now that Idiot He needs a CPAP at night and hauling equipment and setting up every day or two is much less attractive, they decided to try a river cruise. This allowed them to unpack and set up for a week… and all their meals and excursions were included. With only 114 passengers, the Amadara was nothing like those floating cities that ply the Caribbean and other locations with 3-4000 people.
It was really a very pleasant way to travel. Their groups were usually about 20 persons or so and the guides were very good. The food was excellent. A cappuccino or beer was never more than a few steps away. The “easy living” meant they could concentrate on enjoying the journey and excursions. That was especially important on days like the one when they visited one of “The Killing Fields” near Phnom Penh. After an intensely emotional experience like that, it was great to be able to go home and rest and meditate and marvel at how the Cambodian people have handled those horrific events.
Early in the cruise, the Idiots visited Ca Bei, a village in the Mekong Delta with a floating market and a demonstration candy factory.
The Idiots home-away-from-home for a week… The RV AMADARA.
The Mekong is a hard working river. Every day the Idiots were surrounded by hundreds of fishing and transport boats. They often have decorated prows and sterns.. and often have flowers in the bow. Many boats serve as both home and business place for families making their living along the river.
OK – there’s something you don’t see every day… a NO PARKING sign in the water!
The “candy factory” was clearly set up to host tourists… but that didn’t make it any less interesting. First they demonstrated a process of popping rice – rice in a wok with a little hot oil, over a fire made from rice husks (no waste – everything is used…) is “popped” and then mixed with sweeteners and other stuff – peanuts, cashews, etc. – to produce a product something like a “Rice Krispie Bar.” After mixing and patting into sheets and cutting, women wrap the rectangles in cellophane and seal it with little oil lamps. No high-tech manufacturing here!
In another area immense quantities of coconuts are shelled and the coconut is cooked with coconut milk and sugar into a delicious type of caramel.
In yet another demonstration, rice paper is made. A thin rice solution is spread on a griddle and cooked rapidly into a thin “paper” round. These will be cut into four pieces and used to wrap spring rolls. The Idiots had reason to question the hygiene situation…
What would a trip to Asia be without novelty gross-out foods?! For example… what fun to take strong rice wine and toss in various disgusting things like snakes and scorpions and see if the tourists will drink them – and buy them!
The Idiots are fun people… so they sampled the Snake Wine… with mixed reactions…
In today’s America, many of the wires and cables are hidden underground or combined into neat packages, but when the Idiots were young they saw many examples of telephone and power wires strung in complicated patterns to meet the needs of folks in cities. In Southeast Asia the situation is multiplied – people need more power for all the modern conveniences, but there is little money dedicated to updating the delivery system. In fact, when a wire “goes bad”, it is often easier just to add on another wire than to find and replace the offending one. Thus the tangle just increases. Just like the candy factory would never meet US Food and Drug regulations, the wiring grid would send OSHA inspectors into seizures!
One of the reasons Asian food tastes so good is it had one ingredient that tastes (and smells) so bad! Fish sauce is an essential ingredient in many dishes. It is better than MSG at heightening other flavors in a dish. It is made by fermenting small fish and the factory is easy to identify by nose long before one’s eyes see the signs. Readers are encouraged to imagine fermenting fish… lots of fermenting fish… as they observe this picture…
Even in this relatively poor river village, sharp-eyed observers will spot signs of colonial construction in the early parts of the past century. And even amidst poor and moderate income homes and businesses – there will always be flowers. (Note the details in the carvings above the doors…)
As a French colony, Vietnam has been strongly affected by the Catholic religion. Though it is still a majority Buddhist country, almost 7% of Vietnamese identify as Catholic and there are some surprisingly large and ornate churches. The Idiots particularly liked the neon signs that embellish the main altar at the Catholic church in Ca Bei.
Back on the river, the Idiots marveled at the endless variety of boats. The Mekong is also striking for the quantity of water hyacinth one sees along the shore and floating in vast “islands” down the river. Due to the annual flooding, many people use water hyacinth as a “buffer” to prevent erosion – but this also leads to vast quantities of plants floating loose and fouling the nets and engines of the boats working the river. People also will create “pens” with nets in the river and fill them with water hyacinths to provide shelter for small fish – instant fish farms. Large fish become food… small fish provide the base for the ubiquitous fish sauce factories.
Life along the Mekong is “immediate.” Spaces are small for those who live on the boats. Clean water is a luxury. The river is both water source and sewer. Those who can afford it get clean drinking water by truck - $1 for 5 gallons. Those who can’t afford it boil all their water.
Much of the commerce is done by boat. This one seemed to have a “drive up window”
Interesting oars allow Mekong “taxis” to row passengers and goods across while facing forward…
Each boat in the floating market has just one or a narrow range of items… and barter and sales continue back and forth all day, every day… A large blue and red boat is the exception… a virtual aquatic mini=mart.
Nothing is permanent on the river. Every year great floods change the landscape. Building fall into disrepair. And the poor live in boats that become increasing un-seaworthy. Life is a daily struggle..
The Idiots felt humbled as their tender took them back to the comforts of affluence on the Amadara. They hope they can always remember how lucky they are…
Was it hot in the Delta? Not too bad… probably 95 degrees and 95 percent relative humidity… Idiot She was ready for a shower and a nap…
