Day 24 Mekong Delta

The guide was at the hotel before 8:15 AM. As the tour was a "group tour" and not a private tour, I was supposed to meet at the Innoviet office around the corner and about two blocks away. I had been able to convince them that since I had my big bag and was so close that they should pick me up and that they did. I met my travelling companion, Veronique, a 45 year old woman from Marseille, France. Her English was definitely better than my French, so with a few exceptions, we communicated in English. She is a research scientist in parasitology who works with the French military in studying malaria drug resistance. She has been to various parts of the world but is now in Vietnam for one month to collect blood samples somewhere near the Vietnam-Cambodia border. Apparently drug resistance is increasing, and the people have a cultural aversion to taking malaria medicine prophylactically which adds to the problem. Jumping ahead, I really liked her and we had a very nice and fun time travelling together. We independently picked the same things to photograph which I think says something about having a similar view on where we were. I felt bad, though, because I was not well and continued to cough especially at night.

So off we headed toward My Tho, second largest city in the Mekong River delta. When we arrived, we boarded one of the many tourist boats, although we always had smaller version than many others since we were only three (Veronique, the guide, and me). There are four islands possible in Ben Tre province to visit: Dragon Island (Tan Long), Unicorn Island (Thoi Son), Phoenix Island (Phung), and Turtle Island (Qui) which we visited. On the way there, there was a lull in the rhythmic banging in my head from the old boat engines regularly in use in Vietnam. The boat driver pulled out his tools and began banging on the engine and twisting and turning various parts, then unroofed the engine and went in head first. After about five minutes and his mechanical engine magic, the engine restarted. We walked to the family owned coconut candy factory and watched the candy being made; the juice is extracted from the coconut meat, mixed with honey and heated, dried, and then cut into small pieces and wrapped, and then we had a taste which was good. We continued on our walk, passing small homes, the front gate to what was once a Chinese home, some Cham graves, to board a small horse drawn cart to take us through the village. I asked and was told these carts are only for the tourists, but the ride was fun. We walked by the market and saw some interesting eggs based on what the Chinese preserved black duck eggs in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime, and rice hulls for several weeks to several months,)and preserved salted eggs. We met our boat, returned to the My Tho boat dock and reboarded the van.

After several hours of driving to Tra On, we made our final departure from the van and boarded a small ferry to cross over to the island where the home stay was located. We disembarked after a ten minute boat ride and then proceeded down a rocky, muddy path about 100 meters to a small road, turned right and walked about another 200 meters to the home stay. The guide pulled my bag along, although we lifted it up together to carry it over the muddy spots and puddles.

Veronique and I had a room to share with two beds and the requisite mosquito netting. There was indoor plumbing with the usual Vietnamese room containing a toilet and showerhead, making the entire room into the shower stall. The small sink was just outside; no towels were offered or available.

Once settled in, the next project was to assist with cooking dinner. My major jobs were with a large bowl of morning glory, the Vietnamese spinach, breaking up the stems and leaved then to mash together green beans (like lentils, but not) with some finely shredded vegetables (squash, I think) Veronique had finely sliced. We made spring rolls which were fried. The kitchen had a two burner portable cooktop powered by a propane tank. There was a small upright refrigerator in the next room that I was told several families shared. Various pots and pans hung on the wall and there were the needed cooking utensils and a small cabinet with various spices. Although the home was not a western standard home, the kitchen really had everything any cook would need. (no oven). Our hostess completed the dinner which included a fried catfish, the sautéed morning glory, the spring rolls, and a soup with butternut squash in it and papaya for dessert. The meal was quite nice. The guide and I then shared some pictures on our computers, and we attempted to learn a few additional words of Vietnamese before retiring for the evening. I was concerned about keeping Veronique awake as night seemed to be the worst and I was still coughing and congested, but she reassured me she would be