We Took the Scenic Route (Day 1, Mekong Delta)

Yesterday we finished our perfect stay in Saigon. Finally we are all here and ready to begin our journey—16 people, neighbors in the best sense. 

Around 2 o’clock yesterday we boarded our bus which left Saigon taking us south and east into the Mekong Delta. Along the way we were met with verdant rice fields dotted with grave markers of ancestors buried there in the years before the communist government banned the practice. We even spotted two water buffalo. 

Our tour guide, Tien, is hard for me to understand.

His English is good but his intonation is rather flat. On the bus he told us in his flat English how he’s happy he doesn’t have flat English (like other Vietnamese). He talked like this for one hour and fifteen minutes. How do I know?

Because he said they would stop the bus in one hour (halfway) for a “happy room” break. After the hour and fifteen mark, I asked him if the driver could please pull the off the four lane highway aka Satan’s playground with no exit ramps in the middle of the rice paddies and then back out again into oncoming traffic—which he did. The Husband asked me to please hand him back The Shame Card as mine had been cashed. 

We are now aboard our ship, the AMADara, which is moored in the river.

Right now I’m watching another bucolic scene of the sun setting over the shallow and wide Mekong River. The afternoon sky is white. Tall trees line the shore and reflect in the calm river which is covered in water hyacinths.

Our shore excursions began today. Cap will be sure to cover the details. Here’s my pictorial: