Bike Tour in the Mekong Delta - Day 3

Our third morning we rose at 5AM to meet Ha, and headed to the floating markets.  First we visited Phong Dien, a smaller retail market with many locals rowing boats out to get the day's fresh produce as the sun was just peeking out above.

Sunrise on the Mekong

GOOD MORNING Mekong Markets!

Phong Dien Market - the Mekong Delta version of a "Target run"

This cheerful lady has a fast-food breakfast service

This man mixes coffees on his boat - the floating Starbucks of the Mekong River

Our boat is even equipped with a coffee holder!

Man loaded down with his many goods!

Unguarded bananas in a pile on the side of the river
-no one sells or steals these as they are so plentiful here

View into a home on the Mekong

Woman walking her wash down to the river

Woman doing her wash in the river

This is "monkey bridge" that is literally just branches - one has to climb and swing their way across!

We stopped for a quick visit at a local river-side village where we learned about the unbelievable form of labor-intensive processes for planting seeds to create nurseries - this process has not changed for over three generations!  One person will use banana leaves and roll them to form tiny hollow tubes.  Another laborer will fill the tubes with a mixture of soil and ash from the kilns used to bake local bricks.  Another laborer will plant a seed in each tube.  Each of these laborers will make roughly $4-5 a day.

This man has rigged up a high chair and infant carrier
to keep this child safe while riding on the motorcycle

Banana leaves rolled into "cup" that will biodegrade when planted in the soil

Mixing soil with ash

Soil & ash mixture fill each "cup"

These wooden planks set on top of the banana leaf "cups" so that laborers
can squat and plant the seeds without squishing the "cups"

Laborer squatting to plant seeds

Look at them grow!

We saw this fisherman empty his morning catch!

From the village, we traveled to Cai Rang, the largest market on the Mekong and one of the main attractions of the tour.  It's a wholesale market so the people buying tend to take the goods to sell elsewhere.  Many will boat from other parts of the country and stay about 3 days to get their supplies full before heading back to their homes to sell the goods.  Boats will put up a small pole with the items they are selling tied to it, to indicate to buyers what they have to offer.  Most of the boats are about 3 generations old and look like something out of a movie set.

Approaching Cai Rang Market on the Mekong River

This boat advertises that it is selling squash

This woman sells beverages and behind her a multi-level boat is selling pineapples

They call this Mekong rugby - items are thrown from boat to boat!

Following the markets, we began our journey back towards Saigon, stopping at a Cao Dai Temple to observe their noon ceremony.  Cao Dai was founded in Vietnam in 1926 and requires daily ceremonies to worship the Supreme Being at 6:00am, noon, 6:00pm, and midnight, as well as practicing vegetarianism ten days each month to purify oneself.  The Cao Dai religion has elements of Buddhism, Taoism, and Roman Catholocism as its saints include Confucius, Jesus Christ, Buddha, Muhammad, Pericles, Julius Caesar, Joan of Arc, and Victor Hugo, a famous French writer.  This religion, whose purpose is to create a more tolerant world, grew in popularity during the war because if you lived or worked in a temple, you were not called to fight and were considered "safe."  However, today less than 5% of Vietnamese claim to practice Cao Dai.

Woman walking into worship at the Cao Dai temple

Worshipers inside temple

Interesting altar designs

SJ's first squatting experience nearby temple

Outside the temple, men play dominos

Ha dropped us off, after stopping for our tenth bag of lyches (local fruit we love) and we thanked him for the amazing tour.  We learned so much about the culture and people of this area of Vietnam and are so grateful for this background and experience as we spend the next week exploring Ho Chi Minh city, or Saigon as the locals call it informally.