Travelling in Indochina 2024: 2024

After a poor night’s sleep, we woke early, a little bit ragged because of the late arrival and drama of the previous 2 days in trying to resolve the visa problem.

In a taxi on the way to Tao Dan Park

In 2006: Practicing with members of the
HCMC District 1 Wushu Tai Chi group

I left about 6 am in a taxi for Tao Dan Park where many locals exercise and practice Tai Chi, hoping to find a group to practice with.

When we were last here in 2006, I found a group practising on the Opera House steps who were happy for me to join them, but I found the area is no longer available.

After arriving at the park, and seeing lots of people doing various types of exercises, but no Tai Chi, I started heading back to the hotel. Fortunately I came across a group practising Tai Chi sword and was able to join them for some practice. Again the group was very friendly and happy for me to join them and invited me to join them at any time in the future.

Exercising in the park

Tai Chi group practicing sword

With the Tai Chi group

Having missed out on the scheduled walking tour, because of my own personal excursion, I walked for about 30 minutes through the streets of Ho Chi Minh City back to the hotel in my own walking tour. It was hot and humid, only relieved by a slight breeze which came up during the walk. Meanwhile, Frances did the official walk, but then had a dip in the pool to refresh herself.

I think the city has changed considerably over the last 18 years as I recognised very little from our earlier trip, however, it was nice to see there were still many small, restaurants, and street stalls selling all the traditional foods.

There are still thousands of motor scooters used for private transport, virtually all using petrol motors, no electric ones, in contrast to China, so the traffic noise is still substantial.

The bus driver's compartment

Travelling to the Mekong River

In the morning, the group of about 100 on the tour were bussed to the the port town of My Tho, predominantly a fishing village.

When we arrived at the ship, we were surprised to the the large amount of water hyacinths clogging the side of the river. At this point the Mekong is very wide and flows slowly.

After boarding the ship and settling in to the quite spacious cabins, the ship headed upstream towards Cai Be to anchor overnight. The river was quite brown from silt carried down from upstream which provides the fertile soil along the flood plain - I can't see how fish find their way in this brown soup.

Waiting to board the ship

Water hyacinths

The MV Amalotus

Tai chi on board

This was the first day of the cruise, and I had previously arranged with Luc, the cruise director, to run a Tai Chi class for passengers at 6:30am in the lounge area. It was early, because there was a planned excursion for the morning.

Surprisingly, about 14 people turned up for the class, some of which had done a little Tai Chi before. The area was only just big enough but we had a good qigong practice with Frances helping with the demonstration. We eventually did it every day of the cruise.

After breakfast, the passengers transferred into 3 motorised sampans for an excursion along waterways to the town of Cai Be.

Travelling in the sampan

Buildings along the river

Many small fishing boats

Our first stop was at a family business which specialised in producing rice wine infused with snake venom.

The straight rice wine, had not much taste or flavour, but the one that had a small amount of snake venom, which came from a large jar containing numerous snakes, had much more flavour. The alcohol content is generally over 30%.

As we walked along the shoreline to the next business, we passed pieces of jackfruit being dried in the sun.

The distillation process

A "cobra cocktail"

Snake-infused alcohol

Making sheets of rice paper

The second family produced not only similar type of wine, but also produced rice paper for wraps, popped rice and coconut flavoured sweets.

For popped rice, rice husks are burned in a furnace to heat the pan which has river sand (which turns black during the heating process) and the rice grains are tipped on top and as the mixture is stirred, the rice begins to pop.

The popped rice and sand is scooped out and sifted in two stages leaving the popped rice.

This product used in various ways, but mainly mixed with cane sugar sugar and the mixture is then rolled out, sliced up and bagged to be eaten as a snack, often on farms because it provides energy plus a feeling of fullness to reduce the pangs of hunger.

Cutting up the mixture

The finished product

Video showing the "popped rice" process

Next, we hopped back onto the sampans and motored a short distance to the French Catholic Cathedral of Cai Be. It had some interesting external decoration, but was nowhere near as ornate as the churches in Europe. There were still bullet holes in some of the stained glass windows from the American war.

French Catholic Cathedral
of Cai Be from the river

French Catholic Cathedral of Cai Be

Doorway detail

Detail showing grape vines

Bullet holes from the war

Church interior

Our guide mentioned that Vietnam has generally been tolerant of many religions, and even during wars, real religious places were often seen respected as sanctuaries. They were also not intentionally attacked or damaged after conflicts as has happened in some other cultures.

After a nice light lunch, back on board, around 3 pm, we set out on the sampans again for a short ride to the riverside town of Sa Dec.

We went on a walking tour through the huge market area, which includes a fish market, produce market, wet market and wholesale market. It is a pretty typical Asian market, but very large and sold almost every kind of fresh and dried produce.

The range of both vegetable and animal product products was staggering.

Market street scene

Ride-by shopping

Selling in the street and permanent stalls

There was a whole section dedicated to produce sourced from the river.

Fresh riverine creatures

Basa (Ba-sa) fish

Unknown river fish

Cuttlefish

Different cuttlefish

More cuttlefish

Prawns (Shrimp)

Shrimp

Snail selection

Large snails

Crabs

More crabs

Then there was another section dedicated to various typed of meat, including large frogs, and field rats skinned for easy preparation and consumption.

Meat section

Field rats

Live frogs

Frogs

There was a section for dried goods, rice, spices and dried fish.

Many types o f rice

Spices

Dried fish products

Of course there was there was a whole section dedicated to flowers, fruit and vegetables.

Flowers

Vegetables

Anything you want

Lotus

Small round eggplants

Sweet flowers

Durian

There was also an under-cover wholesale section where farmers sold their produce in bulk. This is generally bought by shopkeepers or stall holders who sell it retail.

The wholesale section

Bulk produce

Loading up

We met a women who rode from over 50 km away on a tiny motor scooter, loaded with over 300 kg of fresh produce, which she would take back to her village to sell. Apparently she does this every few days.

Selection of offerings

You can also buy offerings for the many personal shrines which are also used to honour passed relatives and for other ceremonies such as weddings.

These include among the incense, fake money (in Dong and US Dollars), garlic, nuts and other foods, and also cardboard houses for newlyweds.

Offerings with garlic

Fake money

Cardboard house for newlyweds

Our next stop was the home of Mr Huynh Thuy Le where we heard the story of his family and his early relationship which was the inspiration for Magueritte Duras’ novel, L’ Amant (The Lover).

The house from the exterior looked like a temple, including the foyer, although the rest of the house was more simply decorated. The main feature of the living area was a large low timber platform used for all sorts of family activities which had an amazing mother of pearl inlay.

Huynh Thuy Le's family home

Sign outside

Treated to cups of tea

Guide tells the family's story

Main low table

Inlay detail

Our last stop in Sa Dec was at the Cao Dai Temple.

Cao Dai is a new religious movement founded in Vietnam in 1922 by Ngô Văn Chiêu. It mixes ideas from all other major religions, Believing in the existence of a single supreme being, represented by an all-seeing eye.

It is the third, most practised religion in Vietnam, after Buddhism and Catholicism. Volunteers from the church also collect fruit and vegetables "seconds" from the market which they clean up and prepare in baskets which are left outside the church for poor people in the community to collect - nothing is wasted here.