"Me-kon De-uhta"

Wow....where to begin. Just in fromour 3-day Mekong Delta tour. So much to tell but can't fit it all in...

The story begins with an unfortunate incident in the bathroom at our hotel. .....So there I was.....sitting....sitting......when I hear the person on the other side of the wall (another room) flush, and suddenly the toilet underneath me erupted like a volcano, spewing and burbling things from unknown parts all over my back side. EEEEEEeeeeeeWWWWWWWWWW!!!!! Needless to say I hit the showers. Makes one appreciate the finer art of American plumbing.

The next morning we got up at 5:30 (well, woke up at 3:30 because of jetlag,and layed there for a couple hours, until we fell asleep for a few minutes right beforethe alarm went off). We packed our bags, had a quick breakfast of VN coffee, tea, baguette & jam (birthday cake was also on the menu, but we didn't order that!) and then hurriedly huffed our packs and camera gear and water bottles about 1/2mile to the travel agency where we met our tour. We stowed the big bags, then boarded the bus, only to ride it back across town to...the front door of our very guest house, where everyone ELSE on the tour was getting picked up! Oops.

Off we went, 3 days in the delta, a whirlwind tour of boats, boats andmore boats. We probably rode on at least a dozen if not more --- little ones like canoes, speedboats, rowboats with criss-cross oars, junks (refers to the type of boat, not what it carries!). The boats carried us through a maze of waterways and delta islands so intricate we felt as if we could have gone either 4 miles or 400 miles and we wouldn't know the difference.

To our surprise, our enormous new camera lens (roughly the size of a small cannon -- what were we thinking???!) has been a conversation starter rather than an intimidator. The guides and the locals are curious about such a hefty piece of equipment, and love to tell us to take photos of their friends, or they want to take photos of us with it. We've handed the whole thing over a number of times, and so actually have a few pics of us together on this trip. Nice, considering tomorrow is our 10th anniversary!

Today one such venture lead to another, and soon Andy found himself standing at the helm of the rowboat, delicately balanced on the stern platform pushing on the long, narrow criss-cross oars that propel the boat (and me, and our camera and our guide) down the Mekong. The guides thought it was a hoot that the big tall white guy could row, and Andy and I were grinning ear to ear. I got a turn as well, but got "fired" in short order because we were heading in among the houseboats and I simply couldn't steer the darn thing straight! We were quite the spectacle, garnering comments from people on the houses and the other boats. Our guide was enjoying it as well, and didn't laugh too awfully hard at my attempts to do as well as Andy! Our main guide later told us it's the first time he's ever seen a tourist row one of those boats. Pretty cool :)

The first night of the trip was a homestay in a little village on Bihn An island. There, we walked the trails to town in the evening, and on the way got waylaid by a group of men having cocktail hour. Andy was urged then cheered on as he threw back a shooter of sake. (I think they all had more fun than he did!).

Last night we overnighted on a junk -- a beautiful wooden boat with rooftop decks and lots of windows indoors. As we slept, the boat cruised 100k up the Mekong. I awoke at 4:30 (slightly better than the first night), so tiptoed up to the deck for the cool breeze and a change of scenery. As the sun came up, a handful of us watched the waters around us transform from a river as empty as the Columbia to center of commerce as busy as any major US shopping mall. The floating market seemed to wake up more with every minute, and by the time the sky turned from black to pink to a hazy grey, there were coconut barges, banana boats, fishing boats and dozens of others crowded in and among eachother for the next 1/2 mile. We watched, and when they weren't busy, they watched us.

People here are so very friendly. Quick to wave, and quicker to smile. True, genuine smiles. It seems as if they are truly as happy to see us as we are to be here. We haven't experienced the jaded, commerce-laden interactions of other countries.

I haven't yet learned many VN words, as we have in other countries. I was all excited to try out a sentence I've been practicing ("that was a very good meal"), when I read in a book about an American diplomat that was aiming to bridge the cultural gap and ease tensions by doing the same. He intended to say "I am very honored to be here," and instead, in this highly tonal language, it sounded to VN ears as if he'd said "the sunburnt duck lies sleeping!" So........I'm practicing my sentence a little more. :)

I know how to say hair cut, duck, and thank you. Those should come in handy.