Last weekend I took a trip down the Mekong River. The Mekong splits into a million smaller rivers and canals, and serves as the lifeline of southern Vietnam and continues on through the rest of Southeast Asia. The entire trip involved about an hour on a motorbike, 2 hours on a bus, 7 hours in a van, and 5 hours on a fishing boat.
I left Saigon from the public bus station to head towards My Tho, the gateway to the rest of the Mekong. I think my new favorite hobby is experiencing city-to-city buses in foreign countries. In Tunisia, any surface plastic surface became a drum and everyone got up in the aisles to dance in sing. The bus I took here had people running up inside of the bus trying to sell food and drinks. When I say this, I mean they ran through the door while the bus was in motion, and jumped off. If the bus ever slowed down for traffic, like clockwork another vendor would swoop in. The first time I saw this I thought for sure we were being hijacked and that I was going to wake up in Cambodia.
Anyway I arrived at My Tho without further incident, and headed towards the docks. The state-run tourist agency has complete control on the boat operations here, charging roughly $25 to head down the river. However I heard if you go to the docks, you can hire the expertise of a local fisherman/woman to take you for much cheaper. Sure enough I found at the docks what had to be the crew of the Black Pearl, and for half a second I had the crazy idea of using the standard method of transport to avoid having a sack thrown over my body and being trafficked to Pnom Penh. However near the end of the docks I found a little old lady with a creaking body, who I could easily throw overboard if she ever tried anything silly. We negotiated a handsome price and we were off.
I left Saigon from the public bus station to head towards My Tho, the gateway to the rest of the Mekong. I think my new favorite hobby is experiencing city-to-city buses in foreign countries. In Tunisia, any surface plastic surface became a drum and everyone got up in the aisles to dance in sing. The bus I took here had people running up inside of the bus trying to sell food and drinks. When I say this, I mean they ran through the door while the bus was in motion, and jumped off. If the bus ever slowed down for traffic, like clockwork another vendor would swoop in. The first time I saw this I thought for sure we were being hijacked and that I was going to wake up in Cambodia.
Anyway I arrived at My Tho without further incident, and headed towards the docks. The state-run tourist agency has complete control on the boat operations here, charging roughly $25 to head down the river. However I heard if you go to the docks, you can hire the expertise of a local fisherman/woman to take you for much cheaper. Sure enough I found at the docks what had to be the crew of the Black Pearl, and for half a second I had the crazy idea of using the standard method of transport to avoid having a sack thrown over my body and being trafficked to Pnom Penh. However near the end of the docks I found a little old lady with a creaking body, who I could easily throw overboard if she ever tried anything silly. We negotiated a handsome price and we were off.
For about three hours down river, this is what I saw. Straight up John Kerry Swivel Boat action. Even got a Purple Heart out of it. I kept wondering to myself if anyone lived here, until three small boys jumped out of the woodworks and started swimming in the intense rain. I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a Platoon/Apocalypse Now flashback. There were a couple of small islands in the middle of the river (Dragon Island, Phoenix Island, Unicorn Island) that I was told I had to check out, which were cool. They each specialized in different production, such as honey tea, banana wine (which fought back more like whiskey), coconut milk, etc. We pulled over on the side of another canal to eat lunch in some hidden but well-known restaurant, which served fresh seafood. Was delicious, but probably way overpriced due to its location and reputation.
Mowgli and Crew
Making some sort of Coconut concoction
Banana wine and Honey Tea
After I got off the boat, I found a motorbike taxi to take me to a bus station that would then take me to Can Tho, a larger city further down the river and the staging point to see the fabled Cai Rang floating market. This "Bus Station" turned out to be his buddy's living room, where I was to wait for his buddy to arrive on his way towards Can Tho. At this point my line of reasoning was somewhere between "hmm maybe this will make for a cool story, at least its more fun than a bus" and "my kidneys are about to be harvested within the next 48 hours." Well sure enough the sketch-van pulled up, and jam packed inside were 17 other souls. Our collective faces probably mirrored each other, as theirs all seemed to say, "what the hell another one?!" while mine was just "what the hell?!"
The driver was also running some sort of side business, as he pulled off course every hour or so to deliver/pick up some goods. I'm not entirely sure what was in each burlap sack, and it was probably something really innocent, but this man was moving serious product. I imagined this Vietnamese Pablo Escobar was doing something much more sinister to entertain myself for the four hours I spent in the van.
When I got to Can Tho it was already dark so my first order of business was to find a cheap place to stay. I told the driver to drop me off near some cheap hostels/hotels, but upon hearing this he insisted that I go to his cousin's establishment because everyone else apparently wants to rip me off. This place turns out to be really nice for really cheap actually, so I decide to stay there. I sleep with one eye open in case any of those clowns had some ulterior, Cambodia-bound motives, but wake up around 5am to catch the mythical floating markets.
Once again the strategy was to avoid the large tourist boats and red tape by employing the skills of a local entrepreneur. There is a big statue of Ho Chi Minh that is known on the "streets" as the location to hire these smaller fishing boat pilots. Based off my previous success of going with a sweet, arthritis hampered old lady in My Tho, I sought out a similar character. It didn't take long to find her, and after some quick negotiating we were off. The Cai Rang floating market is the largest floating market on the Mekong, where all the local farmers converge to trade their goods, which eventually make their way towards Ho Chi Minh City. They call it a floating market because the majority of the transactions happen from boat-to-boat, with a few boats stopping by land-based stalls as well. I have not seen anything even remotely like it before, and it was definitely worth the trip.
Later in the day larger vessels containing 20-30 tourists would arrive, but the boats would be too big to navigate the actual market itself, and conceded to just circumventing and observing it. However my small fishing boat was able to go through the narrow passages, and my guide happened to be friends with a few of the other boats so it was pretty awesome. There were small restaurant boats that floated around for hungry seafarers, and my guide took me to a friend of hers who had her own floating Hu Tieu operation in the middle of the river. I''m not sure about the safety of of having a giant fire and boiling pot of soup on a small boat, but it was delicious. There were also 7-11 type boats that hijacked onto the larger tourist boats, trying to sell them all kinds of drinks and snacks. Its a very pirate-esque scene, and always amused me.
PIRATES!!!
The road back was infinitely more sketch but that is another story for another time. Next week I will be traveling to Vung Tau beach with my co-workers and some of my students for the World Food Festival and some beach fun in general. I know I'm slacking in updating this, so I'll try to keep on top of things. Until next time...
P.S. Right now in Saigon, the most ridiculous thunderstorm is going on. The sky is a strobe light, no exaggerations. It's pretty damn awesome, but I just realized my laundry just got wet again for the third time since I've been waiting for it to dry. Some you win, dimsum you lose.
P.P.S. You cant really see it in the video, but it was raining an illogical amount. The picture with the three boys swimming gives a better indication what most of my first day was like.
P.P.P.S. RICHARD CHO!
Mowgli and Crew
Making some sort of Coconut concoction
Banana wine and Honey Tea
After I got off the boat, I found a motorbike taxi to take me to a bus station that would then take me to Can Tho, a larger city further down the river and the staging point to see the fabled Cai Rang floating market. This "Bus Station" turned out to be his buddy's living room, where I was to wait for his buddy to arrive on his way towards Can Tho. At this point my line of reasoning was somewhere between "hmm maybe this will make for a cool story, at least its more fun than a bus" and "my kidneys are about to be harvested within the next 48 hours." Well sure enough the sketch-van pulled up, and jam packed inside were 17 other souls. Our collective faces probably mirrored each other, as theirs all seemed to say, "what the hell another one?!" while mine was just "what the hell?!"
The driver was also running some sort of side business, as he pulled off course every hour or so to deliver/pick up some goods. I'm not entirely sure what was in each burlap sack, and it was probably something really innocent, but this man was moving serious product. I imagined this Vietnamese Pablo Escobar was doing something much more sinister to entertain myself for the four hours I spent in the van.
When I got to Can Tho it was already dark so my first order of business was to find a cheap place to stay. I told the driver to drop me off near some cheap hostels/hotels, but upon hearing this he insisted that I go to his cousin's establishment because everyone else apparently wants to rip me off. This place turns out to be really nice for really cheap actually, so I decide to stay there. I sleep with one eye open in case any of those clowns had some ulterior, Cambodia-bound motives, but wake up around 5am to catch the mythical floating markets.
Once again the strategy was to avoid the large tourist boats and red tape by employing the skills of a local entrepreneur. There is a big statue of Ho Chi Minh that is known on the "streets" as the location to hire these smaller fishing boat pilots. Based off my previous success of going with a sweet, arthritis hampered old lady in My Tho, I sought out a similar character. It didn't take long to find her, and after some quick negotiating we were off. The Cai Rang floating market is the largest floating market on the Mekong, where all the local farmers converge to trade their goods, which eventually make their way towards Ho Chi Minh City. They call it a floating market because the majority of the transactions happen from boat-to-boat, with a few boats stopping by land-based stalls as well. I have not seen anything even remotely like it before, and it was definitely worth the trip.
Later in the day larger vessels containing 20-30 tourists would arrive, but the boats would be too big to navigate the actual market itself, and conceded to just circumventing and observing it. However my small fishing boat was able to go through the narrow passages, and my guide happened to be friends with a few of the other boats so it was pretty awesome. There were small restaurant boats that floated around for hungry seafarers, and my guide took me to a friend of hers who had her own floating Hu Tieu operation in the middle of the river. I''m not sure about the safety of of having a giant fire and boiling pot of soup on a small boat, but it was delicious. There were also 7-11 type boats that hijacked onto the larger tourist boats, trying to sell them all kinds of drinks and snacks. Its a very pirate-esque scene, and always amused me.
PIRATES!!!
The road back was infinitely more sketch but that is another story for another time. Next week I will be traveling to Vung Tau beach with my co-workers and some of my students for the World Food Festival and some beach fun in general. I know I'm slacking in updating this, so I'll try to keep on top of things. Until next time...
P.S. Right now in Saigon, the most ridiculous thunderstorm is going on. The sky is a strobe light, no exaggerations. It's pretty damn awesome, but I just realized my laundry just got wet again for the third time since I've been waiting for it to dry. Some you win, dimsum you lose.
P.P.S. You cant really see it in the video, but it was raining an illogical amount. The picture with the three boys swimming gives a better indication what most of my first day was like.
P.P.P.S. RICHARD CHO!
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