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| Wednesday - 23 March 2005 - Words from Lauren Pochereva [Main] Today we left Saigon for the bayou. In Viet Nam they call it "the Mekong" (pr: mee-kong). On the way there we drove through the drier country side outside Saigon. Vespas, mopeds, scooters, whatever you want to call them, were everywhere as usual, as well as the slightly less common bicycle. If people weren't wearing baseball caps they wore their "non la" (straw hats: ^). On the way out of the city little shack-shops, selling mostly coke and 7up but also the weird plastic trinket, line the dusty (but paved) streets. As a result of all the encouragement to drink lots of water, we stopped at a gas station to fill up the little maroon bus and to empty our tanks at the "WC". It was a rather enjoyable little place: dusty ground, smelly water lining the floor, and a 'bring your own toilet paper' kind of atmosphere. Needless to say I did NOT put my 3000 Dong in the box by the sink. A couple hours after leaving the city (we'd left around 8:45am) we arrived at the rather wide river. We hopped out of the bus greeted by an old woman selling non la for 8000 VND, about 50 cents. Most of us got one then hopped onto the boat for a tour of a very small part of that part of the delta. Not only were there houses lining the river's banks, but houses bobbed up and down in the water as well. Many people sell food and who knows what else and live on their boats too. After about 20 minutes we left the boat and went walking around the shop/houses along the bank. They were made with pretty basic architecture: sticks and wood and bamboo, well, pretty much lots of wood-but also very airy because it's frickin' 95 degrees outside and the air itself is sweating. We went to one hut where an old woman of about 65 or so who was a rice paper maker by profession. According to our guide she was so in love with making rice paper she never married. Kendra, Brandon, Debra, and I all got to try making rice paper. You spread this liquidy rice flour over a skin or something that is itself over a fire. Put the basket lid over it and let it sit for about 15 seconds then peel it of with a wooden stick and let it hang on a basket to dry. None of us kids were any good. But on the way out we bought lots of rice paper. A pack was 5000 VND or about 33 cents. We next went to a place where they made coconut products: chopsticks (mom I got some for the house for I think $2 for 10 sets), salad tongs, carving things, but most importantly: chewy candy!!! That was so good. We saw them making it right in front of us but I couldn't say how. Don't worry I bought lots of that too-a dollar a pack or 15,000 VND. That place also sold an assortment of traditional and not quite so traditional garbs, like robes and shirt type things. Some of silk, some of linen. Everyone had there wallets out here, especially after tasting all the home-made candies. We then went to the puffed rice house down the way. That was a large stir-fry type wok where the picked and dried (I guess) rice was put in and cooked like traditional pop-corn. The cooked husks of the corn are then sifted out and used for fertilizer. Non-cooked rice husks are used to feed the fire. It's all quite efficient, really. Okay wrapping things up
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