Today I have had one of the most fantastic taste adventures: Mangosteen. It is a tennis ball sized, dark purple fruit with thick skin. I have been wanting to try one since I had a mangosteen juice smoothie at Smoothie King 5 years ago. We saw them in Saigon, but the merchants tried to charge me $2 for one. One! That's pretty absurd considering you can get around 10 bananas or 2 pineapples for $1 usually. So we passed that time, only to see them again while we were waiting for the ferry to Phu Quoc Island. Travis has found them and bought 1/2 kilo for $2. We break one open, and an incredible taste sensation hits me. It's sweet, tart, and intensely tropical, yet mild and succulent. I then proceeded to dub it my all time favorite fruit and eat 4 more. Wow.
As we realized that 4 weeks was not enough for us in Vietnam, we had to get a visa extension. We found that it was to take 7 days, so we skedattled from Saigon for more adventuring while they were processing our visas. We headed to Soc Trang and the watery world of the Mekong Delta. It was swelteringly hot, and we dared not swim in the river after it had passed through China, Laos, and Vietnam. Not the cleanest of countries.
Can Tho: the largest city in the Mekong Delta, but with a small town vibe (eg:chickens in the street). We found a cheap little guesthouse down an alleyway and booked a boat tour for the next day. We arose before the sun and headed down to the pier with our jolly but non-English-speaking guide. No matter, we began our cruise as the sun arose over the Mekong. It was only the 3 of us in a tiny little motorboat chugging down the river past other tourists on day tours and locals with boats laden heavy with produce. He steered us close to the bank to see the houses on the side; all of them had 1/2 of their house over the river and supported by stilts, and a little pier coming down from their back porch! Mekong river culture at it's finest.
We come to the main attraction, the floating market. It is around 7 AM, and it is bumping. Floating market? I had no idea what to expect, but here is the concept: there are big vendor boats with tons (literally) of one or another sort of fruit/vegetable. There were boats with huge piles of coconuts, carrots, durian (stinky), turnips, watermelon, and many many more. On the end of a long stick standing vertically from their boat is a sample of the merchandise so that customers can see who is selling what, like aisle signs in the supermarket. Smaller boats plied agilely between them, buying these foods in bulk to take to another market, to their restaurant, or perhaps to feed their massive families. We supposed that these vendors were farmers selling their crop and it is probably easier and cheaper to get 2 tons of watermelons to a city by boat than buying or renting a huge truck.
We saw another floating market about an hour upriver. This one was smaller, and more quaint. There were less tourists and a more laid-back vibe. Little old Vietnamese women in cone hats waved at us and laughed at Travis's hair. We turn off into a small canal. Along the banks are peoples houses, and they are going about their lives as usual: cooking, bathing in the river, washing clothes, and fishing. Little children yell "Hello!" to us and we reciprocate. It was vouyeristically exciting to watch these villagers whose lives must be so different from my own. Fruit trees and palms line the channels, and we glimpse lush flower gardens in some of the yards.
The sun has risen high in the sky when we turn back, and Travis decides to roll up his sleeves to get rid of that incessant farmers tan. It works a little too well, and when I tease him he says "I'm not sunburned, I just have a red tan!"
Our next destination in the Delta is Vinh Long. We step off the bus and a humble yet kind man approaches us and asks up to come to his homestay. It was a little expensive but we agree, as we had good feelings about it. We bypass Vinh Long and head immediately for the tiny island across the river. The homestay, called Ngoc Sang, was a dreamy little place from another world, set amongst fruit trees and meandering little rivers. Our main activity here was biking around the twisty turny "roads" (I would call them sidewalks, but people drove bikes and motorbikes on them) over questionably sturdy wooden bridges, stopping to drink young coconut or have a shot of the local moonshine with super friendly locals. The homestay included our dinner, so in the evening all of the guests congregated to eat the divine food cooked by the lovely family. We met so many interesting people there, including an Israli couple, Anat and Yosi, a Californian named Sean, and Kai, the smiley German touring Asia on his bicycle.
We went out on another boat trip with some of these people the next day. It was similar to the one in Can Tho, but minus the floating markets and plus a coconut candy making factory. The sticky liquid was mixed in big bowls, laid out in strips to dry, then cut and wrapped lightning fast by highly concentrated Vietnamese women. My favorite part was the free samples! I bought some but it ended up being durian flavor. That's ok, makes my life a little more exotic I guess. We also got to hear an impromptu concert of classical Vietnamese music by a thin older man when we stopped for a fruit-and-tea break. Then Travis got to play the funky, 2-stringed Vietnamese guitar. That was his favorite part. Also, I held a bee hive.
We are so glad we got to see the Mekong Delta, we found it was warm and friendly, with beautiful shining gold temples and amazing Vegetarian food. After smoothly getting our visas back, complete with that handy little stamp, we are off to Phu Quoc Island!
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