The Mekong Delta area (South-west corner of Vietnam) truly is a different world. Life revolves around, and takes place on the Mekong River. We spent a couple of days floating around in a boat and exploring the floating villages and markets that are so famous in this area.

There are countless 'neighborhoods' of homes lined up in the river. The homes are kept afloat on empty oil drums. The people set up breeding centers for fish right below their homes. This makes their work much easier than fishing, and also protects them against theft...by living right on top of their supply of fish.

We awoke one morning well before sunrise and walked down to the local pier. There we found our friend Mai, who we had met the day before. She had convinced us to hire her and her little boat to take us on a tour of the floating markets of the Mekong delta. Shortly after meeting up with her she passed us on to her "sister" (they use this term loosely) who was going to be our guide for the day, instead of her (Vietnam is ALL about the hand-off).

We putted along the river as the sun was rising, taking all of the early morning activity. Along the shore groups of people were lined up doing their morning Tai Qi and Qi Gong, and may heated games of badmiton were being played...all of this at 5:30 AM. It is the only time of day when it is cool enough (not for me)to participate in any type of physical activity.

We arrived a the first floating market shortly after 6:30 AM and it was in full swing. Boats were all stuffed into a little inlet, people were shouting, money was changing hands, and we were there with our cameras. The boats were so tightly packed in at times that our guide had us pushing other boats out of the way so that we could force our way through the crowd. People were selling everything. They would raise up samples of what they had for sale on their flagpoles, pineapple, beets, motor parts, or breakfast, you could get anything you wanted.

After visiting another market we turned off of the main river and into the little channels. They were little neighborhoods really, where the river is the main road in front of the houses. As we rode through the canals we began to notice the build-up of trash along the banks, and in the water. During one stretch our motor died every 100 meters. Heaps of plastic bags would get caught in the little propeller, our driver would pull the propeller out of the water, struggle to untangle the bags from it, THROW THE BAGS BACK IN THE WATER, sigh and continue on. Now, I was having a very difficult time trying to understand where the disconnect was...in what universe does it make sense to throw the bags back into the water. Anyhow, after stalling 10 times in as many minutes Jim and I began to play a game, in an effort to stay calm and avoid irritation. We played "Identify the floaters". What we discovered in the water (just inches from our bodies) was disgusting. Long florescent light bulbs, shoes, blankets, fermenting watermelon rinds, dead rats, straws, plastic bags, eggs, personal hygiene products...I could go on. The river is the life blood of this region, they bathe in it, wash dishes in it, cook with it, and raise their food in it, yet they continue to use it as a big trash can. I wonder how much longer this will continue, before the river is too polluted to fish out of.