The area of the Mekong Delta is a hub of activity centered around river-life. Located 3 hours from Saigon, it’s a popular stop on the “tourist” trail, so thought we’d check it out and see what it was all about.

We opted for the Saigon Tourist day tour for this one, which ended up being quite an endeavor. You just never know what you’re going to get with these day trips, namely the people you’ll be spending in this case upwards of 12 hours with.

Our initial impression when the bus arrived to pick us up from our hotel was that we made a bad decision when Jason noted a half dozen children running up and down the aisles of the bus. Strike one! Strike two was the fact that the only two seats left (mine on top of the wheel well with no leg room) weren’t next to each other, so we’d be spending the next 3 hour drive without each other’s company (you’d think after almost 4 months of traveling together we’d be okay apart for a bus ride, but sadly we’re just not sick of each other yet.) Within 15 minutes of our drive, the beautiful sunny skies clouded over and rain began pouring from the sky – strike three! Hopefully things would get better from here.

I specifically chose this day tour because they advertised taking us to experience the floating market, which is supposed to be quite a site to see. Unfortunately, our tour got a bit of a late start so by the time we got to the delta, loaded our long boat and arrived to the market, there was almost no activity left on the river. That was a bummer to miss!

BUT, once informed our next stop along the river would be a candy factory, we all perked up, especially Jason. We got to watch them make lots of different treaty-cakes including popped rice bars, ginger and coconut candy, and sweetened rice paper. The smells in the air at this place were divine, and luckily they fed us samples of all the candy, with some nice tea to wash it all down. This was especially a score since usually on these things they try and give you the hard sell to buy all the goods, but this was more about sharing it with us freely.

Back on the boat after waiting out a down pour, our next jaunt was an hour and a half boat cruise through the waterways of the delta that eventually led us to a local music show. I’ll let you be the judge of the “performance”—not exactly like seeing Zero 7 at the Fillmore!!!

One thing that I forgot to mention, which was giving Jason a coronary throughout the whole boat trip, was “Marlborough man” sitting directly in front of us chain smoking cigarettes the entire trip. I have never seen Jason almost blow a gasket like this – he was so annoyed and frustrated at how inconsiderate this guy was. I think we know who “the one in the group” was this day.

The one thing that really didn’t disappoint, though much later then we had anticipated it would be served, was lunch. Although it most certainly wasn’t at a “local’s house” as advertised in the brochure, it was in a beautiful, lush, tropical setting behind a restaurant. We indulged in a 5 course Vietnamese meal, beginning with the Mekong specialty of elephant ear fish wrapped in rice paper – it was delicious!

By the time we got through with lunch and back to the bus it was already 4:30pm, and we had a 3 hour ride to look forward to. Although the day had shaped up into a pretty decent tour, ending on the note of a bus full of completely wired children going nuts on the 3 hour ride home soured things a bit. Thank god we have so much video though to remind us of the more enjoyable aspects of the day!