As real as it gets
Trip Start
Nov 08, 2008
1
8
20
Trip End
Jan 17, 2009
Chau Doc,
Vietnam
Monday, December 8, 2008
Highlights of my two days in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon): Wandering around the legendary Continental Hotel, setting for a number of scenes in Graham Greene's "The Quiet American," one of my favorite books. Dinner at Lemon Grass, a small but exquisite restaurant that must be one of the city's best.
OK, so that's it for HCMC. On to the really incredibly good stuff...
I've been fascinated with the Mekong River ever since Jim and I took the two-day boat trip upstream from Luang Prabang, Laos, to Huay Xai, across from Chiang Khong, Thailand. (See my "SE Asia 2008" blog.) After returning home, I read a fascinating book by Milton Osborne titled "The Mekong: Turbulent Past, Uncertain Future." All of that made me keen to explore the Mekong delta in Vietnam. I wanted to savor my time there, rather than rushing through the region on a guided tour. I guess you'd say I prefer independent travel.
I had the extreme good fortune to meet a woman in Seattle who grew up in the Mekong delta and who gave me the contact information for her family members who still live there, with a very generous offer to stay with them. This plum really just fell into my lap, and I'm not one to cast aside fresh fruit, tropical or otherwise.
Unfortunately, due to my complete lack of knowledge of the Vietnamese language and other tribulations, the contact almost didn't happen.
Miscue number one happened in HCMC when I attempted to contact the Seattle woman's relatives.
01. My dinner companion at Lemon Grass, HCMC
Suffice to say communication broke down.I thought that ended any chance of making contact with the family. So, I decided to do the next best thing and made a reservation with a homestay recommended in Lonely Planet, Tam Ho. This turned out to be a very good "next best" thing. Tam Ho is a working orchard and nursery that also brings in tour groups for traditional music and food. Nearly all the food is grown on the farm or in the immediate vicinity, to give an indication of just how fertile the Mekong delta is.
I stayed in a cold-water, fan-cooled, second-floor room with a view over the tropical fruit trees. Nguyen Tri Nghiep, an industrious inheritor of the orchard from his father, personally met me at the nearby ferry dock and took me on the back of his motorbike down the narrow bikes-and-motorbikes-only paved path to the main house, where I stayed, just steps from a side channel of the Mighty Mekong. (On my way to the ferry, a young local guy led me to the landing, obviously going out of his way to do so, and then handed me money -- more than enough -- for the ferry ticket, zooming off before I could give the money back or even thank him sufficiently. Amazing.)
I spent a good portion of the first afternoon just communing with the river. At dinner I was invited to join a couple from Paris in enjoying a lovely grilled fish and other local dishes.
A group tour one day covered a local floating market (wholesale only), coconut and rice candy factories, restaurants with caged pythons, a bicycle ride and a short boat trip in a low wooden boat propelled by a woman in traditional dress at the twin oars.
Meanwhile...
Back in Seattle, Nancy was in action, contacting the woman who'd made the homestay offer.
02. Boats on the Mekong
Together, they sorted out the details and relayed them to Nghiep, who relayed them to me -- the woman's brother would come to Tam Ho the next day to pick me up and take me the 50 kilometers to his home.From the back of the motorbike, as if in a dream, the beautiful, fascinating and thought-provoking scene flowed past: unbelievably green rice fields, young women in the traditional au dai ("ow-yiee") on bikes holding the front of the long dress with one hand while floating across the landscape like a silken butterflies, kids in school uniforms that include the red neckerchief, rural hamlets not too far removed from a scene out of "The Quiet American." My soul filled to overflowing.
I ended up staying for two nights in the island hamlet reached only by a small ferry and with paved paths through the banana trees and other tropical flora. Added to that was the warm hospitality of the multi-generation family. The fresh tropical fruit brought to the table (or taken directly from the tree) was a bonus.
My last evening I was informed that I was undoubtedly the only Westerner on the island during my stay there. Residents followed the odd spectacle of a tall geezer walking down paved and dirt paths in front of their houses, sitting on the back of a passing motorbike or hunkered in the bottom of a low wooden boat skimming a side channel of the Mekong.
The dream became reality.
Now I'm in Chau Doc, near the Cambodian border, on the recommendation of Nghiep and an Australian guest. The day after tomorrow I plan to pass through HCMC once again (can't be helped) on my way up the coast to Hue. From there I plan to cross Laos to Savannaket and into Thailand, where Nancy will join me at the end of the month.
Comments
Real Dreams
Ron -- Ah..... a dream-come-true for you! Kristi