I had extra time in the South of Vietnam to explore as a typhoon stopped my visit to central Vietnam, so I headed down to see the Mekong Delta, which is known as the rice bowl of Vietnam for myself. The Mekong river source is in Tibet, but this is is where the river of the nine dragons meets the sea in one the world's largest deltas. I only managed to visit a very small part of it during my one day excursion from Saigon and it was certainly set up for the tourist buses, but I still enjoyed seeing this part of the countryside.
This is a display of fruit - they're not all growing on one special tropical fruit tree....
(Yes, I wore the hat - but sorry no photos of me in it!)
Almost all of the lush fertile plains around the delta are farmed for rice, bananas, mangoes, peanuts, rubber, tropical fruits etc and the people of this region also make the most of the river, living either on the river banks or in floating villages.
During my visit I visited Phoenix Island, Turtle Island, Unicorn Island and Dragon Island. These are all important animals to the Vietnamese and featured heavily in the water puppet show in Hanoi. Sorry, I can't remember where I did what - it was a busy day and difficult to keep track.
I went for a cycle ride:
Rowing boat along a very congested river:
Tried honey tea, which was delicious, although I didn't enjoy holding the bees (which didn't sting):
Tried coconut candies in a candy factory:
Went for a horse and cart ride with a happy Vietnamese cowboy:
And watched school children feeding some small crocodiles (only 1-2m long, not like the big beasties I saw in Australia)
I really enjoyed my day in the Mekong Delta and if I come back to Vietnam I'll go off the beaten track a bit more to see more of the countryside.
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