Day 3 - Mekong Delta

7th March 2010
The Mekong Delta is a network of rivers, streams and canal interspersed with villages and floating markets. Located in the South West of Vietnam, the area is incredibly rich and fertile, and produces the majority of rice production in Vietnam. The Mekong Delta is also a very popular tourist destination with many tours operating daily. My tour group had a good mix of people from different countries - French, Slovenian, Finnish, Lithuanians, Swedes, Swiss, Australians, Japanese, Vietnamese and Americans. The tour bus came to pick everyone up in the morning and then it was a 3-4 hours drive on bumpy roads to get there. On the way, the bus passed by many rice paddy fields with farmers planting or harvesting rice.

When we got there, a boat was waiting for us by the river. This is definitely the best way to explore the Mekong Delta. The weather on the day was warm and sunny, the water was calm – the perfect day for a boat ride.

Life in the Mekong Delta revolves much around the river, and all the villages are often accessible by river as well as by road. As we went down the delta, we could see housing by the river. They were mostly corrugated tin shacks perched on bamboo stilts. We soon stopped on one of the islands to visit a workshop that made coconut candy and to see how honey is produced. We got a chance to sample the products and were offered the chance to purchase them. Some of the people didn't really like this part of the tour. I was OK with it because if you scratch all of that out there isn't a whole lot to do in the Mekong Delta and you need to fill the hours some how.

We headed back to our boat and went further into the delta – where the quiet backwaters and the small, sleepy and peaceful villages can be found. This was the point where the tour group split up into smaller groups and was transferred into smaller row boats called a Sampan to get through the narrow canals. The rower was taking us to one of the villages for lunch. Elephant Fish was served and the waitress showed us how to eat this dish. The fish meat were rolled into rice paper with fresh mint and other type of veggies, and then dipped into fish sauce. It did tasted great because everything was fresh. After lunch we did bike riding around the island, visited small market, and explored some of the orchards filled with many tropical fruits like durians, rambutans, longans and mangoes.

By this time it was about 4pm afternoon and our final stop for the day was Can Tho (the largest city in the Mekong Delta) where we would be staying for the night. We had the option of either taking the bus or going by boat and getting the chance to see the Mekong River on sunset (additional cost). Not surprisingly, everyone on the tour chose the boat ride which took about 3 hours.

It was interesting watching the local life as we made out way down the river to Can Tho. The river was alive with activity - children swimming, people fishing, preparing food, cleaning, bathing in the brown water, even urinating into the river. We passed under many bridges, saw school girls wearing the traditional uniform, children cycling, dogs lazed in the heat, farmers taking a nap in their hammocks etc. I would also like to say that the people living in the Mekong Delta were so friendly and easy going. So many locals were waving and smiling at us as we relaxed and enjoyed the sunset over the river.

We arrived at Can Tho just after sunset. The tour guide took us to a really bad and dodgy looking hotel, tucked away in a dark back alley. There was no air conditioning, the hot water was not working, and the bed sheets was in horrible condition (I think they forgot to wash it!). And on the outside of the hotel balcony, it was crawling with geckos. It would be the worst hotel I stayed in for the entire trip.

We had the rest of the night for free time so I went out for dinner with the tour group. We then walked around the streets for a bit but I personally didn't really enjoy it. Besides the riverside park and statue of Ho Chi Minh statue, there wasn't really anything interesting to do there. I couldn’t wait to get out of the place.

War Remnants Museum

War Remnants Museum in Saigon is an impressive and memorable museum dedicated to telling war stories that occured during the Vietnam War. On display outside of the museum's building are American military vehicles used during the Vietnam War. There was a UH-1"Huey" helicopter, an F-5A fighter, a BLU-82 "Daisy Cutter"bomb, M48 Patton tank, and an A-1 attack bomber. Many tourist like to take photos of these vehicles doing silly poses including me.

There is a section outside the museum's main building that was about the torture of prisoners during the war. Some of the items on display includes a guillotine used by the French and theSouth Vietnamese to execute prisoners and reproductions of the "tiger cages" and prison cells in which the South Vietnamese government housed political prisoners. Surrounding this area are very graphic images that show the effects of torture. Beware there are a lot of shocking images which are not for the faint hearted.

Inside the museum's building there are three levels showing films, pictures and other items on display that document atrocities committed by American, Chinese, and French soldiers in grim detail. The first floor is very interesting because it displays all the propaganda of the government and is very one sided. There's such great communist propaganda about how brothers and sisters beat back the imperial dogs of the French and the Americans! Loved it!

On the second floor there are numerous rooms containing different war artifacts (artillery, weapons, guns and gear are all on display). There is also photo galleries depicting what the war did to this nation and its people. Photos like the massacre at the village called My Lai was especially upsetting. Although the room was full of people, everyone was very quiet and somber. And you can see from everyone faces, it was a very moving experience.

The section on Agent Orange I thought was very disturbing and graphic. The United States military used chemical weapons  during the war to defoliate forests and bushes so the enemy could no longer remain in hiding. However, Agent Orange did a lot more than that. Children were being born with birth defects and many had deformed bodies, missing limbs or body parts, extra body parts as result of this.

In the top floor, there's an incredibly moving collection of photographs, 'Requiem', taken by 134 war reporters killed covering the war. Some of the shots were just unbelievable.

I thought the museum was both moving and thought provoking. It was perhaps the saddest experience of my trip but definitely worth visiting. Although it was a very one sided presentation, (there is nothing in the museum that depicts the North Vietnamese doing anything bad), we can't deny the suffering that the war brought upon the Vietnamese people. Just know you are not getting the whole story.