{"id":1215,"date":"2011-01-09T16:53:38","date_gmt":"2011-01-09T09:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/?p=1215"},"modified":"2011-01-09T16:53:38","modified_gmt":"2011-01-09T09:53:38","slug":"mekong-delta-vietnam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/2011\/01\/09\/mekong-delta-vietnam\/","title":{"rendered":"Mekong Delta, Vietnam"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mekong<\/a><\/p>\n

Total Miles Traveled: <\/strong> 46,236<\/p>\n

Several friends and travelers advised us to get out of Ho Chi Minh City to see the Mekong Delta \u2013 we were glad we did.<\/p>\n

We took a 2-day cruise on the Bassac boat, from Cai Be to Can Tho.\u00a0 It turned out to be a fantastic way to see the area and way of life in the countryside.<\/p>\n

\"Mekong<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mekong<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mekong<\/a><\/p>\n

The Mekong river [wiki link] starts in Myanmar, passes through Cambodia and flows down to the coast of south Vietnam.\u00a0 It is THE transportation network and foundation of the economy in the area. \u00a0So, people live by the river \u2013 check out the antennas on these homes to get a TV signal!<\/p>\n

\"Cai<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2026 and on the river in boats.\u00a0 And sometimes both.<\/p>\n

\"Mekong<\/a><\/p>\n

The back of the boat is usually where people make dinner:<\/p>\n

\"Mekong<\/a><\/p>\n

And clothes are not washed in machines, but in the muddy river.<\/p>\n

\"Mekong<\/a><\/p>\n

One major industry is harvesting dirt and rocks\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Mekong<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2026 and then you have to transport it.\u00a0 The dirt is so heavy that the boats are made to travel almost completely submerged.<\/p>\n

\"Mekong<\/a><\/p>\n

Where does the dirt go?\u00a0 Well some of it is used to make bricks in these huge kilns.<\/p>\n

\"Mekong<\/a><\/p>\n

At the end of our first day, we had a torrent of rain just after sunset:<\/p>\n

\"Mekong<\/a><\/p>\n

The next day, we woke up before dawn to visit the floating markets. Yes, one of the rare days we see the sunrise, but it was worth it!<\/p>\n

\"Mekong<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mekong<\/a><\/p>\n

Where do you go buy the freshest produce?\u00a0 You go to the floating markets where vendors transport fruits and veggies direct from farms to its buyer, all via boat.\u00a0 You can tell what each boat is selling because of the fruit or vegetable that is hung on a pole extending up from the boat.<\/p>\n

\"Mekong<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mekong<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mekong<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s a customer, driving her self-powered SUV to the market:<\/p>\n

\"Mekong<\/a><\/p>\n

Check out the morning commute \u2013 look at all of the bikes!<\/p>\n

\"20110110-DSC_0532\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Or the ferry!<\/p>\n

\"Mekong<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a look at life on land.\u00a0 The Mekong delta is also known as the Rice Bowl of Vietnam.\u00a0 Many a rice paddy are found here:<\/p>\n

\"Mekong<\/a><\/p>\n

Life is simple \u2013 people work hard and live off the land.\u00a0 Growing season is year round.<\/p>\n

\"Mekong<\/a><\/p>\n

And as we\u2019ve noted before, kids appear to behave the same around the world… well mostly. These kids have learned the peace sign that is oh so common around Asia:<\/p>\n

\"Mekong<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s a boy blowing a blade of palm to make a kazoo-like sound:<\/p>\n

\"Mekong<\/a><\/p>\n

Have a look at all of our photos from our trip to the Mekong Delta:<\/p>\n

[flickrslideshow acct_name=”tony-chen” id=”72157625802462215″]<\/p>\n

Next, we head north to central Vietnam and visit the city of Hoi An.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Total Miles Traveled: 46,236 Several friends and travelers advised us to get out of Ho Chi Minh City to see the Mekong Delta \u2013 we were glad we did. We took a 2-day cruise on the Bassac boat, from Cai Be to Can Tho.\u00a0 It turned out to be a fantastic way to see the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}