Our newly amalgamated group — farewell to the Aussies, hello to a handful of Brits — assembled early in the lobby to set off for the Mekong River Delta. First, though, we had to pick up another G Adventures group to share the day with us. I have to admit I was slightly disappointed, as I’d hoped we’d have two seats each to ourselves so we could be less cramped. But no such luck.
It’s about a two, two-and-a-half hour drive from Saigon to My Tho, where our boat and local guide awaited us. It was a largely uneventful, if not super comfortable drive.
Our guide’s name was Yang, just like our CEO, although it happily didn’t create any confusion. We boarded the covered wooden boat and set off through the murky Mekong water toward Unicorn Island. Our first stop was to an apiary, where Adele finally succumbed to my exhortation and held up a rack of bees from one of the hives. After the photo, we drank honeyed tea and listened to a sales pitch about the wondrous benefits of royal jelly.
After that, we walked along a lane to a demonstration of rice popping, and a table selling snake wine, which smells a lot like tequila or mezcal, but was very smooth and nondescript — although the bottle was something else.
We stopped to sample some local, tropical fruit — guava, dragonfruit, pineapple, small bananas — and listen to a performance of some traditional Mekong music. It was almost bluesy at times, although the guitar’s frets were so severely scalloped that bending notes would be almost unthinkable.
We then boarded small canoe-like row boats to be transported along canals beneath a canopy of water coconuts. It was quite serene, if you ignored the dozen or so other similar vessels plying the same waters.
Back on the larger boat, then, and off to coconut island, where we learned more than I would ever have thought to ask about coconuts, went on a tuk-tuk ride around the small island, and had lunch. Then we took the boat back to My Tho and boarded the bus back to Saigon.
Other than the discomforts of the bus, it was a great last day in Ho Chi Minh City — and Vietnam. Tomorrow we’re off, bright and early, to Cambodia, where more adventures await.
