South East Asia Adventure | Life on the Mekong

I am writing this from the HCMC airport while waiting on (another) delayed flight but there is certainly no de-icing required here. It has been hot, as expected, in HCMC and in the Mekong Delta. Today we visited the floating market along the Mekong. As we boarded the wooden dragon boat in Can Tho I did not know what to expect, but life along the river is busy, vital, life-sustaining for the people here. Both sides of this tributary of the Mekong (there are nine altogether) are lined with businesses that both support and depend on river life. There are gas bars for fuel, repair shops, and all manner of commercial activity both on the river and along each bank. It is dense; there is barely an inch of riverfront that is not taken up. The shanty-like homes reflect the every day activities of life. People cook meals, wash up, work. Clothes dry in the heat of the sun.

During our short ride up river we see boats going both ways; some are filled with tourists like us, others with watermelons, pineapples,and other fruits harvested nearby and sold at the market. Our boat appears to do double duty. The blue vinyl seats, though they look much like any seats in a boat, are not fastened down. I imagine our driver removing them after our tour and heading back up river for a load of goods. As we approach the floating market its efficiency becomes clear. Farmers bring their goods to the sellers, who take them on their boats, and wait for the buyers to come up the river. The wooden boats are close together, and each is filled with one or two fruits and vegetables, in abundance. Men, women, girls and boys, steer the boats around and around, making deals with buyers. When a buyer and a seller are in business, they tie their boats together. We circle and wait for our turn to try the ripe, juicy, tiny pineapple, and watch in awe as the woman carves it up in into a long wedge so that we can hold on to the green top and eat it from its core. Nothing is left but the core and handle when we are done. The dragon fruit is quartered and the red outer peel pulled back to allow us to eat it while holding on to the red flesh. Together the pineapple and the dragon fruit make a juicy mess!

We head back down river toward Can Tho and stop at the dock for the fish market. The morning's catch are squirming in metal tubs, their heads being chopped while still alive. Frogs are tied together by the legs, eels squirm, tiny sparrow-like birds are skinned and hang from racks. There are chickens, beef and pork sitting open in the air, and every manner of vegetables and fruits most of which we could not name and our guide could not translate. Motorcycles wiggle their way through the narrow lanes among the many tourists and the local buyers and sellers, honking to clear the way. Women are busy at work everywhere, sitting on their haunches, legs and ankles bent into impossible angles, carving, cutting, slicing, gutting, cleaning, selling. It is hard work, we think. But our guide tells us that life here is easy. The delta is rich, abundant with food, both on the river and on the land.