Giophone: Mekong Delta

Friday, February 23, 2018

Mekong Delta

The Lab technicians asked me where I would like to spend the weekend? I told them I had seen most of the tourist arractions in the HCMC and this time I might join a local tour for a 2 days with one night of a deeper tour in Mekong Delta. Friday, they told me the trip to the Mekong delta had been arranged and they would pick me up at my hotel at 5:30 leaving me no room to object.

I was expecting a tour with everybody in the Lab in an ambulance, like the last time we went to Vung Tau beach until I saw a minibus, a driver and a tour guide waiting in front of the hospital. The guide explained the itinerary in Vietnamese and translated in English through one of the technicials but I had a hard time to pick up anything from her Vietnamese accent which soon became my lullaby. I woke up and found myself next to the Mekong river bank in My Tho after a two hour drive. After breakfast, another tour guide joined us and reviewed the itinerary for me in English which is summarized as follows:

Visit Vinh Trang Pagoda in My Tho. Take a boat trip to Thoi Son Island, visit a coconut candy workshop. Continue to visit fruit orchards and enjoy honey tea and fresh fruit with a traditional music performance. Take a boat and paddle through the canal in Thoi Son Island to Mekong river then switch to a bigger boat to Phoenix Island. Lunch at a local restaurant in Ben Tre and back to My Tho. Visit the snake farm in Dong Tam, then the journey home. (Routes on Google map below)

A combination of Chinese and India architectural styles, Vinh Trang Pagoda consists of five buildings and two ornamental yards. Inside the pagoda, Chinese calligraphy engraved pillars, statues of Chinese deities, in the style of Chinese temples dominate worshippers eyes. Some bricks on the roof were replaced by transparent plastic for natural lighting; rays of light reflecting on the wafting smoke from joss sticks create a sacred ambience.

The rest of the trip I found insipid. To me, visiting coconut candy workshops and tasting honey tea and seasonal fruits was a way of stalling for time and selling products to tourists. One of the most puzzling destinations was the Phoenix Island. The island looked like a kindergarten from the boat: 9 dragon pillars scaterred over a square; a globe hanging to steel frames on top of it a space ship, apollo, flying into space; two towers rise from a Vietnam map which represent the two major cities in Vietnam, Hanoi and Saigon; a concrete cave extends toward to the towers creating an arch between the two where the coconut monks floating pagoda is situated. The highlight of the weirdness on this island is that you can pay 2000VND to fish for crocodiles. Biography of Coconut monk is exhibited in the lobby of a hotel that I dont think is still open for accommodation. Pavilions were built on the other side of the hotel for dining.

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