An Afternoon on the Mekong Delta

On Saturday, May 29, 2010 we went on a Zone Activity to the Mekong Delta area. This area is about 1 1/2 hours out of Ho Chi Minh City. The city where the boat dock is, is called My Tho. It was so hot, that Scott and felt like we couldn't survive unless we had some shade. So we each bought a rice hat. Scott's is more cowboyish. Mine is worn by men and women alike especially out working in the rice paddies, hence a rice hat. It cost me a big $1. We were greeted by this friendly, gentle guide named Hoa. She is married with a two year old child. Elder Jackson explained to us that the Mekong is called the River of 9 Dragons because it breaks off into 9 rivers before it enters the China Sea.


I can't say the hat does much for my looks, but it did wonders to keep the hot sun from beating down on me.

I thought Scott looked so funny in this hat. After the picture he pulled down the rim and then it looked more like a cowboy hat.

The first island stop was Phoenix Island. They have a lot of honey bees on this island. They do not sting you. They allowed us to put our finger on the honeycomb and the bees just ignored you. The honey was good. They gave us alot of samples of food made from this honey. We bought some peanut honey candy that was good.

They allowed us to try these bambooshoulder carryalls. Many use these to not only haul fresh produce, but here in Cambodia women use it to haul dishes and the food they want to sell that day. People will stop them and they serve them from their dishes and then move on. I am amazed the weight that they carry on their shoulders. Sister Jackson is below.

They then took us on a canoe ride through the jungle. It was surprisingly smooth and also very busy. In the post below this one, I have a video of it.

We stopped off at an island that had these 9 posts representing the 9 dragons which represent the 9 rivers breaking off from the Mekong. There is a restaurant and hotel, well more like a motel here.

Back in the boats again we went to Turtle Island where we ate lunch. We ate at this restaurant in the jungle that was kind of like a grass shack. It rained, but we were perfectly dry.

This was behind where we were sitting.

We ate an Elephant Fish. They had us go choose what fish we wanted out of this big cement holding pond. They scooped up this fish, and then bashed it on the head, weighed it and withing 15 minutes we had this. They put an almond breading on it, so those are not worms you are seeing, just almonds. The fish was good. A waitress came and broke off the meat with chopsticks .

You can see we were well on our way to eating it all. They also served us a chicken soup that we watched them kill that chicken and then weigh it too. They served everything of that chicken. One plate had the thighs, legs and breasts and the other had all the rest. It was good.

Some of the menu items from this restaurant are: Iguana Rice Soup, Snake head fish hot pot, Elephant ear fish (that's what we had), Snake curry, Turtle Curry and medicine heads, eel, crocodile, cat fish and squid. So they had quite a menu selection.

Did I tell you I bought two hats? This one I see Cambodian women wear all the time on their motos to keep the sun off. As they travel along the flap looses it's dignity when it blows upward. But Scott likes me in it, so I posed for him. Elder Ly is behind me.

In the town of My Tho where we got on the boat, there was a street with this extremely long dragon celebrating a future fruit festival. It is all hand painted and brought in in sections. Quite something to see!

Many homes in Vietnam are long and narrow because of a tax issue. If you build too wide then your taxes go up because it takes more space. So, many build narrow, tall and long. In Cambodia you see houses very similar, but they are a little wider.

So that was the end of a very relaxing, but educational day. Oh, I should tell you that in this city, My Tho, as we drove in, I made the comment that I like this town, this has a good feel to it. This would be a good place to put missionaries when the time comes. Scott felt the same way and Elder and Sister Jackson had the same thought. So, I hope it comes to pass while we are here. But who knows? I think we're aways from that! Anyway, nice clean town. We've had the same impression about another city here in Cambodia, but it's not going to happen there either for a while.