The Mekong Delta Adventure - Day Two

Only good news this time: I got my pictures back. It's a good thing, too, because I was really hitting a brick wall trying to describe the second day without them. I'm still not sure exactly what the problem was, but I had a hunch that my computer's SD slot might have been the source, so I bought a little USB SD card reader. It reads my card just fine.

We woke up early the next day and set off for the Can Tho river market. I'm not quite sure what was going on the whole time, but it seemed as though we drove into someone's back yard, asked if they could give us a tour with their boat, and they agreed. I'm not sure how my friends knew which house to go to, but it seemed to work out.

Here's the back yard:





And here's a row of houses from the front:



And a few shots of the market in action:







The market is basically like a giant game of bumper cars. Only in the water. And instead of bumping into you for the fun of it, people bump into you so they can sell you things. Usually they'll wave at you from a distance, and you can respond by waving them over or refusing them, but some of the bolder ones will actually ram your boat and start tossing fruit at you. Well, okay, they don't toss the fruit. But boat ramming does occur quite a lot, and it's a big part of what makes the river market such an incredible experience. I also enjoyed ducking to avoid giant poles and motors and whatnot. It adds a whole new dimension to the shopping experience.

If you look closely at the first picture you'll see a pole sticking up with some fruit tied to it. Most of the boats have poles like this; they're like billboards, advertising what each boat sells. Most boats sell fruit, but there are boats selling cigarettes and water bottles and things like that. One boat served us coffee, and another boat made us breakfast.



I'm not quite sure what was in it, but it was good.





In these two pictures you can see the "fruit pole" more clearly. The second picture also provides a nice broad view of the whole thing. And I'll close with this nice view of the living conditions in the area:



After the river market, we went to a park where we fed crocodiles. Or, well, where we were supposed to feed crocodiles, I think. Most people tried to keep from feeding the crocodiles as long as possible. This is how it works: you pay a little money, and they give you a long fishing pole with a piece of meat on the end. You get to keep the pole as long as the meat is still on there. So naturally, everyone tries to keep the meat from the crocodiles as long as possible. In this way it's evolved from simply feeding the crocodiles to an elaborate crocodile teasing game, in which you dangle the meat in them, wait for one to lunge, and then pull it away as fast as you can (preferably while jumping high in the air and shrieking; everyone else will do this with you). It's a great time. I was terrible at it. Those crocodiles are just too fast for me. They're also incredibly creepy.



I mean, look at that guy! The really creepy thing is that they just sit like that, heads poking out of the water, jaws agape, for minutes at a time. You can tell he was looking right at me when I took the picture, too. He's smiling for the camera! I'm going to have nightmares over this.

After feeding the crocodiles, we watched a pig race. The pig race was about as lame as it sounds. It didn't even have the dignity of being anticlimactic; an anticlimax requires the expectation of a climax, and I had set my expectations pretty low. It was also hilarious and incredibly fun, despite the complete lack of tension and the fact that it was over within a couple minutes. I practiced my Vietnamese by shouting out the number of the pig I wanted to win (everyone else did this as well). Then we all stampeded down to the finish line to cheer them on from there. My pig didn't win.



Finally, we went to an old house which apparently has featured in several films (I gather a French film, L'Amante was shot entirely in and around it).





And that's the trip. Next is the trip to Angkor Wat.