Day 16 - Rice Snacks, coconut candies and a relaxing afternoon

 

We woke up around 5:30am, Mom read her book and I worked on the blog that frustrated me so much yesterday.  We went for breakfast at 7:00am, ate too much again (same same, croissant with pineapple jam, bacon and fruit)

At 8:45am we got on the sampan to go to a family run business that makes things out of rice and coconut.  It's a very nice temperature this morning.  I said to Binh, "how lucky are we to not have been rained on this week?". He said this time of year isn't very rainy actually that usually it might rain for an hour a day whereas the group he took through 4 weeks ago they had heavy rain every day for hours "and you know it's really hard to have guests who are happy when they are wet all day"

On the way over Nam told us about the floating fishing farms.  He said each structure is about 55-60' long, 18' wide and 8' deep.  They feed the fish pellets twice a day.  The fish, mostly red tilapia, take 3-5 months to mature so a family might have between 1-10 fish farm structures so that they have rotating income which they earn by taking the fish to a market or fish factory.  They essentially have as many structures as they can afford.  Now they need permission from the council of the community to have a structure or to add one.

These people are negotiating the price of fish likely and the fish farmer will fillet for the buyer and then they'll grind the bones, fins and everything to use for fertilizer.  There is very little wasted here, they often use all of the components in different ways.

This is the first gas station I've noticed.
I saw another one later in the day.

The place where we are going now is a business all run by family.  Every family member works here and has a job.

First we watched a woman making rice paper.  She uses the rice husk to burn and fuel the heat under the drum, she dumps 30-40ml of a rice slurry onto the drum and covers it with a bamboo conical cover where it steams for 25 second, then she takes a rod and gets under the rice paper.  After this process it will dry in the sun for 2-5 hours to harden into the rice paper sheets that we are familiar with to make fresh spring rolls.

Next we went over to a rice wine distilling area. The snake wine is used a lot by farmers, especially those who are older, who after a hard day working in the fields have sore muscles and need to relax.  Nam's father used to drink it he called it a "men's power drink".  He said this is "100% snake, real snake" as he was holding up a dead snake with tongs he pulled out of a barrel.  Like what else would it be but 100% snake?

After this we watched them pop rice.  For popping they're using rice grains that have been harvested after 3 months. Again, they burn the rice husk to heat the bowl which is filled with black sand.  Then they add 300g of rice grains to the bowl and it pops quickly as he mixes it with the sand, then the had sieves that separate the popped rice from the sand.

Rice Grain

Black Sand

Rice puffs

The next station over a mixture was being stirred of caramelized bitter melon flesh (rich in Vitamin A), peanuts, malt coconut milk and sugar.  Once it's been cooked for 10 minutes and reaches the right consistency they mix in the popped rice to make like a rice krispie treat.  We tried it fresh, it was really good.  

They then put it into a mold and used heavy rolling pins to compact the rice into the mold and then cut it manually into squares which then were transferred onto a table surface for someone to pack into plastic and someone else to seal (which she just sealed it with a flame).

Then we went to see them make coconut candies.  Coconut candies are very popular in Vietnam, they're like a soft caramel but made with coconut milk.  A young coconut (7 months old) is what you usually get when you're drinking coconut water.  These are made from 1 year old coconuts and the water then gets a little too bitter.  This is another example of nothing going to waste. They shred the coconut flesh and then squeeze it to get out all of the moisture (milk).  They stir the coconut milk, mixed with chocolate to sweeten it, for 1 hour gently until it becomes sticky like toffee.  Then they put it in a mold, cut it in pieces and wrap it in a thin rice paper (which won't stick to the toffee and is edible) and then paper.

We tried the candies on the green plate, it was very subtle coconut caramel

Finally we were sat down with a variety of treats to sample and given some jasmine tea.  There was black sesame treats, candied ginger (very sweet), dried banana with a sugar seasoning, some popped rice treats, a little corn looking snack that was salty (like a non cheesy cheese-it).  I tried the banana and Gina said "What is that one?"  It's banana "Oh, ok"  I know, I said, it could be banana, it could be fish, you don't want to take your chances right?

We had an opportunity to support the Vietnam economy again with their expansive gift shop.  I said to Mom "these look like what you would buy in Costa Rica that say 'made in Vietnam'"  She checked the bottom, it didn't say anything, lol.

We didn't buy anything but lots of people have done lots of supporting of the Vietnam and Cambodian economy this trip, some even buying extra luggage to go home.

The sky is looking grey and miserable so we're thankful to have gotten to the ship staying dry - Nam said "that's a water bomb cloud".  

We never did really get any rain.

We don't plan on going to the excursion this afternoon anyway (which is another village visit but all out in the sun) and it will be nice to have the afternoon free.  We get off the ship tomorrow so this is the last excursion on the river here and it's been interesting for sure but I'm ready to get off the boat.  I quickly got changed and then went down and both laundry machines were free so I'm going to Saigon with all clean and dry clothes!  I did my travelling home outfit too even though I only wore it for travelling here.

Non Beer with an Orange Slice.

Mom came in from her shower and Gina said "You always have a smile on your face" and Mom leaned over to her as she walked by and said  "well my resting face isn't very nice" lol.

I overheard about a passenger who was really sick, her husband was asking Binh about making arrangements for a private transfer to Ho Chi Minh and early check in at the hotel.  It reminded me that Jackie wanted to know about the antibiotic that I was prescribed for travellers diarrhea if I get it and so when I went back to the room I grabbed it to show her.  For Africa I was prescribed Cipro and I did have to take it (and it worked wonders) but they didn't want to give me another heavy duty Cipro prescription this time because you don't want to become resistant to it.  I heard the passenger say that his daughter-in-law and son are both doctors and so got her an antibiotic.  Later I saw the daughter-in-law at the pool and told her I do have Azithromycin if she needs it (and I heard she was a doctor or I wouldn't mention it!).  She thanked me but said that she did have what they needed now, they got it in the city yesterday.

I had set the alarm for the laundry to be ready to come out of the dryer and when I got down there Cheryl was waiting and said "I knew you would have a timer, it just stopped", she was waiting to put her stuff in the machine behind me.

I went up to the top deck shorty after this to sit outside while Mom went to the room.  The chairs in the lounge aren't super comfortable but our room doesn't really have a good place to sit either so more than anything I just wanted the lounger.  I did change into my swimsuit but it's grey skies and slightly cool (probably 30 degrees, lol), I can hear thunder but not see any lightening and while it did rain very lightly and very briefly we never did get a downpour.

Mary came over and said she had a  nice photo of Mom and I so sent it to me  

About an hour before Binh's evening briefing I went back to the room to change and start to pack up our bags.  We leave tomorrow morning bright and early for Ho Chi Minh (Siagon).  As we were packing Mom said "I don't understand people who think they can't pack just in carry-on" and I said most of the time I think it's the shoes - Carol said she has 9 pairs, Timi said she had 6 pairs, Jackie had 5 pairs, I know Jo has at least 5 pairs because she has 2 pairs of nearly identical wedge dress shoes plus her birks and 2 pair of runners.  When we got up to the lounge later as we were walking in I was wearing a scarf I bought, a nice crochet top, green capri linen pants and the white slide sandals provided by the hotel as slippers, lol.  I said to Mom "not everyone would wear the provided slippers to dinner".  But I'm also not the only one!

We ordered drinks and at one point Carol said "don't mention champagne" they had done the champagne pairing at the Embassy restaurant dinner in Siem Reap.  So they drank 3 glasses before they left, then had a little flight of champagne when they got there and then did the pairing menu (for 8 courses).  I said "How did you feel the next morning on the long bus ride to the ship?"  "Like Crap." haha.  They're from Kentucky so say things like "bless her heart".

Mary's friend Jo came up to me in the lounge and asked for the extra Tylenol that I had told Mary I found in my purse.  She thanked me profusely and really appreciated it because she can't take NSAIDs like Advil and Aleve.  I'm not supposed to take them either which is why I have Tylenol.

I told Carol and Jackie about not ordering alcohol on the ship and how they went out of their way twice to pick up more non-alcoholic beer for me.  I said I used to "drink a lot, like socially - like enough that when I went to the doctor and they asked how much alcohol I drank a week I would lie".  Everyone there lies too and I'm sure Drs know you lie and just double what you say. haha.  Now I can count on both hands the times I've drank since February but I do still enjoy a drink every now and then!

After Binh's briefing about what to expect for checking out tomorrow and the travel to Saigon the staff (50 of the 53 staff) were introduced and then some of the staff did 2 traditional Vietnamese line dances for us in a performance.  Then they invited us to join them to dance.  Daneth, who is our room attendant, tried to get us to get up and dance with her but we declined.  Mom said "I hated to say no to her but I hated to dance even more". lol

Dinner was good - I had a fresh springroll, the traditional beef broth soup, a stewed pork with rice and then baked Alaska which I've never had before but Carol and Jackie say is a cruise staple.

We said goodnight, packed up the rest of our stuff so we're ready to roll in the morning and went to bed.

Day 15 - Mango Island, the Wet Market and the Weirdest Temple I've ever seen

 We woke up around 6:15am this morning, well I did, Mom was already up and hiding under her blanket to read her Kindle.  I told her again that she didn't need to do that but she doesn't believe me.  She said she was only up for about 15 minutes before I woke up.

At breakfast Mary came up to me, yesterday I had overheard her friend Jo and Russ talking to Binh and asking him if he had any Tylenol and he said that he couldn't give a guest any medication but if she needed something he could find it for her and leave it on his desk and she could pick it up.  I went over and told her that I could give her Tylenol because I have extra strength, quick release Tylenol in my bag.  SO at breakfast Mary said that Jo would really appreciate some Tylenol.  She's hurt her shoulder, she did it before she left and had had it treated with a shot but it's really bothering her now.  I went down to the room and got the ones I had, I had cramps earlier in the trip so I'd used a lot of them already but I had 6 I could give her and I had a couple more in my purse I let her know later.

At 8:35am we were the 2nd sampan boat to leave the ship today (they're rotating, we were first yesterday and we're Group 1 so David and I were joking later it was good while it lasted).  This tour is to Mango Island which is home to 65,000 people.  85% of the Vietnamese population relies on agriculture.  Approx 24million people live on the Mekong Delta, which is about 25% of the population.  It's low and swampy land, the average elevation is only about 2M above sea level.

The first place that we went was to see women making Conical Hats, the symbol recognized as being Vietnamese.  Nam spoke mostly and explained how functional and beautiful the conical had is and Vietnamese women wear them a lot.

She was untwisting.

She was stitching.

Palm leaves are dried in the sun for 5 days and they're naturally twisted in the drying process.  One woman untwisted the leaves, the next flattened them with an ironing process (there was a hot plate heating from underneath and then she used a fabric ball to straighten the leaves which allows the natural oil to come out which makes the fabric shiny and also water resistant.

She was ironing.

There is a mold that the hat is made on with 18 rows of reeds which make up the frame.  Then a bottom layer is made up of 25 leaves, the middle is 10 pc of bamboo bard and then another top layer of 25 leaves.  They're all 100% handmade and take 1000 stitches.  Traditionally the decoration is on the inside of the hat because the outside is what gets wet from the rain.  

These hats supplement their income, they are waiting for the mangos to grow.  They can make 3 hats per day per person and hat traders come and take them to the market.  They were $4 for the big hat, $3 for the medium hat and $2 for the smallest hat.

After this we got onto the tuktuks.  They explained last night that these tuktuk would have benches and 6 people per ride.  "You've been downgraded from business class to economy class - you're in a communist country".  When we got in it was 4 people to a tuktuk so David joked we had "Premium Economy".

OLLLLD Motorbikes.

Timi, David and Mary

On our way we passed the oldest church on the island, built in the 18th Century. 

Our next stop was at a Monastery.  The priest spoke to us, said he was the Guardian of the Priory and welcomed us to the City with "May the Lord give you Peace" which is their traditional greeting in the Church.  

This Church has a long and meaningful history, about 150 years.  In 1877 it was only a seminary to study to become a priest and the priests who studied here served many dynasties in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  Overall it's a very large complex with over 100 different structures.  In 1945, during the first Indochina war with France, the seminaries were completely destroyed.  In 1957 they were rebuilt.

They serve the poor, ill and the community.  Their community cares for people affected by leprosy for treatment and care but thanks to modern medicine and international healthcare organizations now leprosy is not longer in Vietnam. They have one living patient who has been cured until now but they continue the mission to welcome guests and learn about their history or come for rest and peace.  He wished us well with "May the Lord give you Peace".

Next a Doctor spoke to us, but he was so quiet it was really difficult for anyone to hear him so I did my best.  He specialized in Leprosy and skin diseases.  His mission is to spread awareness and he's happy to see people gathering together here from so many different countries.  He wishes to spread serenity, peace, tranquility, joy and friendship and is grateful that we are visiting to learn about their country.

Many Doctors have come to work in their clinics and hospitals to train and teach.  The UN especially was beneficial to the medical community during the COVID 19 pandemic.  

Someone asked him where he went to school to be a Doctor.  He went to high school and then went to the monastery and then continued to study for 6 years with trained doctors and 2 years of university and then he trained under French Doctors for another 20 years (I don't think in reality he is a Doctor).   He said there were 3 doctors on the island, which is home to 65,000 people.  For 20 years he worked with leprosy patients but now there are no more patients but he still works with skin diseases.

He thanked us for coming to learn their history and said he was sad to say goodbye.

Nam shared a little bit more about the community.  He said that in Vietnam approx 10% of the population is Christian, the 2nd highest population of Christians behind the Philippines in Asia.  The island also has Buddhist and Cao Dai and the other form of Buddhism as well (practiced in Cambodia).  This Island has Christianity because before the 1850's, before the French, it was a while island, one of the most remote untouched islands in the Mekong Delta.  Before the 1850;s Christianity was not allowed by the King but in 1860 the 3rd Generation King allowed open religion.

For scale.

This Tamarind Tree was planted in 1870.  The flesh of the fruit is used for sour soups and pastes.

He didn't say anything about this brick statue but I thought it was interesting that it was made from brick.

Next we walked through the mango fields.  Below are Purple Mangos, the taste and texture is different.

The most popular is Green Mangos for salad, which I had thought was just an unripened mango but it's a variety of mango.

This is a Jackfruit tree.  The fruit can weigh up to 40lbs.

This cemetery in the middle of the mango field houses many European priests who died between 1840 and 1870 from France, Portugal and some from Deutschland.  They got support from a lot of visiting priests which is why there is 10% Christianity in the country.

Taken with Pano

Taken without Pano.

This purple flower is Water Spinach, it's a week that grows readily but they do use it.

Prettier in person.

We walked through the Mango Field for a while and headed back, it's hot again today but they try to keep us in the shade as much as possible. And still no rain!!

SOOOO hot. Feels like 37.

From here we took the tuktuks to a sampan maker.  One of the tuktuk tires went flat during the journey so then another of the tuktuks stopped and everyone piled into one, so instead of 4 in one it was 9 in one so they were packed in tight.

Nam explained the process of building this 18' sampan boat.  Sampan translates to "three wooden plank" so this is a three wooden plank boat.  This couple make boats together with no formal training, the techniques have been passed down from family members.

Step one is that they buy the tree from a local farmer and then take it to a mill to be cut.  Once they get it to the shop area their first step is to bend the wood over fire.  

They need the wood to be not too dry and they can tell by feel if it's dry enough but not too dry.  Now they can't use big, mature trees because of deforestation so now they need more than 3 planks to make a boat but still call it Sampan.

The boat is made with 36 boat ribs which holds the boat structure, (he’s cutting a rib here) cut by hand (and foot for stability!)

Then they use a glue resin and push it into the gaps, they mix it from trees and it lasts about a year to waterproof the boat so every year it has to be removed and refilled.  Tin can be added to the exterior, coating the bottom of the boat where only tin is in the water and that lasts years.

He's adding the glue resin.

The tin, it costs extra but it's not a lot more.

He has a manual drill in case the electricity goes out, so he demonstrated how that works.

They can make an 18' boat in 10 days and do boats to order usually but this year they had orders in advance and has made 30 boats so far this year.  Each boat costs $650 USD and then you can add an engine to it for more.  He specifically said "second hand engine".  The boat will carry 1 tonne of cargo.

Then we took a little path through their field to get back to the large Sampan boat.

This boat designed to carry live fish.

This afternoon excursion we will visit the largest fresh water wet market in the Mekong Delta where we will be met and greeted with a Lava Dance at a temple as well.

Mom didn't come to the excursion this morning because she felt she might need to be near a washroom this morning - once I got on the sampan boat I thought I would ask her to do laundry while she was one of the only ones on the ship.  I sent a message to her phone, one to her email and an actual email but she didn't leave the room so she didn't get any of the messages.  So when I got back I went straight down to the laundry and both machines were occupied but they only had a few minutes left (less than 10) so I left my bag in the laundry room and set my alarm to go back down.  When I went back the laundry was finished so I moved theirs up to the dryer but didn't start it and started our wash.  Mom went down and moved it to the dryer 30 mins later, we just set alarms to make sure it's not sitting there taking up space.  But I've got all clean clothes again except for the shirt and underwear I put in a plastic bag in my Longchamp tote and then forgot to add to the wash (FFS), but good news getting tonnes of use out of my tote!

We went for lunch in the Atrium restaurant (that's not what it's called I just can never remember the name so that's what I call it because it's all glass walls and like patio tables).  Today was a beef, chicken and shrimp pho and a pork sandwich (not surprisingly yesterday was roast pork at the main restaurant).

I definitely didn't need the sandwich
but had it anyway.

Feels like 41 now!

So now I have a problem (it's 8:30pm here but I've been having this issue all day).  The stupid app won't upload photos and my iPhoto isn't synced because the wifi and signal have been awful all day.  So do I just report half the day and the other half with no photos or wait until tomorrow when the signal is better?  I thought I had it figured out by doing it on my phone on the website and copy and pasting pictures but they just showed up as the weird photo icon like an empty picture when I came here to edit in the text.

Like this.

I had to delete the app and reinstall it and it seems to have fixed the problem but I wasted a lot of time so this is now going out the next day.

On the boat ride to the Market Nam explained a few things - the first is about the boats and if you notice that they all have eyes on the front.  This is traditional Vietnamese because they believe that everything has a soul.  The bridge has a soul, the boat has a soul and it's seen as a living being.  The eyes help to guide the boats to their final destination safely.  They also mimic the eyes of a shark, he said that small boats used to have crocodiles jump into the boats and harm the fishermen so they added eyes of a predator to the front of the ship to ward off attacks.

There are 1000 fresh water species in the Mekong River, the 2nd largest diversity in species behind the Amazon.  The most important is the fresh water shark catfish (with whiskers he said many times), it is the symbol of the Mekong River.  The world record was caught at 600lbs.  They also have Blue Carp which has been caught at 300lm and Giant Brown Stingray which can be up to 4' wide.  They have an eel that looks like a fish, they call it Dragon Fish and also have Escargot, Red Tilapia, they have many fish farms on the river and feed the fish with pellets.  We passed a pellet factory earlier in the day while travelling down the river.

This guy was very insistent we take his photo.
He didn't want anything for it, just to have it taken.

Happy Buddha is fat and smiling
for Good Fortune and Prosperity.

All the motorcycles here are old.

We entered the market and Nam said it's busy in the afternoon but much busier in the morning.  There were bikes and scooters that were inside the market loaded up and driving down the aisle.

This is a wholesale part of the market.

After the Wholesale area we went where you could purchase just for your family, individual pieces.  The prices are marketed and he said that everyone is basically the same price so there is no bargaining unless maybe you buy 10 of something you might get a small discount.

There are 500,000 inhabitants of this area and no Supermarket.  So individual convenience stores buy in the bulk wholesale section of this market and individual families buy in the market.

With 500,000 population he said there is no homelessness.  No beggers, everyone does something to make a living.

Meat is out in the open air

Live Shrimp

After the protein area we went to more grains and spices.

Ran into a formatting issue from copying and pasting

photos - now they're just all in a row for a bit, sorry!

Flower Market.

Fruit Market - all the colours were so vibrant.

After the market we walked to a Temple and were greeted with a Lava Dance to welcome us with (what else) Prosperity and Good Fortune.

Can you imagine how hot it would be in there?

2 boys in each of the Dragons

These are the doors to enter the temple after the dance.

After the temple we went to the Lovers House.  There is a movie made of this story.  This house was built in 1895 and renovated in 1920.  We had a few (very few) sprinkles of rain on the way down the block from the temple to the house but it was no longer raining when we came out.  The few sprinkles and the pick up in the wind had been a nice break from the heat.

At this point one of the guests in another group (there were multiple in here at the same time) said something negative about our ship I think, she was on the other side of the room.  The Guide responded to her and said that the tours were very similar from different providers and she said something else again and he said very calmly and politely "Ma'am next time I invite you to book with someone else".  Good for him!

The story goes - In 1929 a young French girl was waiting for a Ferry crossing the Mekong River.  She was making her way to school to study in Saigon.  She was 16.5 Yrs Old.  A shining limo pulled up to the Ferry area and a rick 32 year old Chinese Vietnamese, who had spent 7 years studying in Paris, got out of the car.  He approached the young girl and asked her if she would like a cigarette.  They spoke and offered her a ride to Saigon (5 hours by car instead of 10 hours by bus).  They got to know each other on the ride he learned of her families struggles.  He went to visit her a number of times at school and they fell in love.  Ultimately he went to meet with her father, who was heavily addicted to Opium, and asked for her hand in marriage.  He said no for 3 reasons - first, their economic backgrounds were too different, she was poor and he was rich; second, their cultural backgrounds were too different, she was French and he was Vietnamese-Chinese and third and most important - he had "eaten rice before the gong".  In Vietnamese culture you don't eat before the meal is announced - in this case the term referred to the fact that they were intimate before marriage which is tradition. In 1970 his last request on his deathbed was to speak to her and he called her the love of his life even though they had both married and had families of their own.

The final stop was the oddest temple/church/place of worship I've ever seen.  It was like a Disney version of a mishmash church.  This is a Cao Dai temple where they worship in Taoism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. 

All Seeing Eye

Each Religion is represented by their Deity 
between those two curtains.
Confucius, Jesus, etc

Three Saints who write the agreement
on behalf of God - including Victor Hugo
an Author.

Dragon Hearse

On the way back to the ship just some photos of the daily life of those who live on the river.  Nam said these are the "slums".

He said that they are developing more power sources, solar, wind because a lot of their power still comes from charcoal mined in Vietnam.

In the lounge before our daily Briefing

We sat with Carol and Jackie before dinner in the lounge.  Mom and I were sitting at a table (her reading and me trying to upload the fricking photos) when they joined us.  After the briefing we headed into dinner and had a table for 2..but sitting beside Carol and Jackie at their table for 2, lol.  

Dinner was excellent.  There is definitely not a lack of food and I'm going to have a hard time adjusting back to eating at home!

Now it's time to head off to this mornings first excursion so I'll post this when I get back. I have to change into my damp bra from yesterday (no sense dirtying another one).