Oct 25-2 - Cai Be and Sa Dec - Vietnam as seen from the river

First impressions of rural Vietnam as seen from the river: everything is green and gray, not colourful. There is little in the way of a "national dress", most people wear western clothing, sometimes with the conical hat , occasionally you see the traditional pyjamas. Everywhere bicycles and motorcycles honk their way through the village.  This lady is taking her dog for a a ride...

On our numerous excursions we are shown, at a fast clip, people at work. The overriding impression is one of a people working hard to make a living. Everything is laboriously made by hand; techniques used and perfected over generations are ingenious. We saw:
a woman making the rice paper for spring rolls or candy:

 ...rolling candy made from puff noodles and sugar (very good!)

or making bricks...

Imagine working in this environment where the outside temperature is 40+,  where the ovens (no thermostat) reach a terrific temperatures - for $120 a month.

At the local market, we are, of course, seduced by the colours and the textures and the faces of the people.....

...and marvel at what is sold...fish are still wriggling, and I heard reports of skinned frogs being offered, still alive....

 

 In Sa Dec we took tea 

at the home of "the lover" of Marguerite Duras  - her book by the same name, "L'Amant", won the Goncourt Prize in 1984, and has been filmed. She and her Chinese lover have become a legend in this part of the world,. She was French, he was Chinese, the story was sad.

Our ship is named after her.

Oct 25 - Cai Be and Sa Dec - Vietnam as seen from the river 1

We are transported from the Marguerite by small boats which took us up the river to Cai Be...

...past a floating market...these people, who live on their boats, bring produce from the villages to the town...long poles in front of their boats show what they have to sell:

 All life seems to happen by the river...all  sorts of things are bought and sold on the river...from pineapples to coffins:

Oct 2 4 - boarding the Marguerite

...is the day we board the cruise ship Marguerite to travel up the Mekong river, ultimately to Siem Reap in Cambodia. Mekong means"gift from Mother Nature". The colour of my tea with milk, with water hyacinths floating leisurely, one can well believe it, as I sit on the sundeck  at dawn and watch the ferry boats cross:

The ship is 70 meters long, 30 meters wide and has 4 decks carrying about 75 passengers from every corner of the globe.

 Here our digs on the main floor...

 ...with window bench, if you please....

Canada is well represented with about 18, but there are also many people from Australia and UK, a smattering of French and Spanish. the boat was built a year ago by Vietnamese, and is beautifully finished in mahogany or is it teak?

 There is a sundeck which would be lovely to sit on, if we had time to sit....

Oct 23 Another day...another town...Saigon

Arriving in Saigon we find we have left rickshaws behind... we are overwhelmed by motorcycles...thousands of motorcycles...men, women, children...sometimes all together on one, all looking like masked bandits...Saigon is the city of motorcycles:

Photo credits: B. Kostera

Here the opera house on the main street...very French, very sophisticated...the whole city has a cosmopolitain feel....with Asian influence. This street was the hangout of the correspondents during the "American War" as it is know here...all the embassies and government building are located here.

And on the side of the road, the vendors...this particular lady charged us 100,000 whatevers (phoukits?) for a coconut...she smelled fresh meat when she saw it, because as it turns out, food for the rest of the day only cost 350,000 whatevers for the 2 of us and that includes coffee and dessert at the local version of Starbucks, called Jenny's.

We had a magnificent time trying on all sorts of silk creations and Bibi gave her Visa a thorough workout....

(btw: this is a photo of us after the Thai massage..I'm the blonde on the right, Bibi's hair turned dark from the stress, she's tired of being Goldie Hawn)

At noon today we'll go on board ship...after a 2 hour bus ride....only 44 passengers for this one week trip up the Mekong River. We end up in Siem Reap and Angkor Wat, where we will stay another 3 days. There may not be internet on board, so expect silence from the east for the next week or so!