MORE FROM THE MEKONG

Our day began early, with a trip to a floating village. We were greeted by a flotilla of long, slender wooden boats, each with a slim, strong woman who was the designated "rower." Wielding two long oars, she stood behind us and navigated her craft through narrow channels where we could glimpse the lives of the river people on their floating homes. We arrived at a fish farm, then to lunch at a riverside restaurant where the omnipresent (and delicious) spring rolls were accompanied by a complete fish -- erect on a plate, reproachful eyes fixed on us, ready to be dismembered for our eating pleasure. 

Onward  the bus, past rice fields, which often had a grave of a former worker, and then to visit a pagoda crowded with the faithful -- and thence to another which exemplified the ecumenic nature of religion here. In one gorgeously decorated pagoda, for example, there was a lovely "lady Buddha", a fierce warrior from the Taoist/Confucius Chinese tradition, a shrine to the "God of the Heavens" , part of a sort of animist belief system, and a series of faintly Hindu sculptures. Refreshing!


Our rest stops let us admire sculpted trees, lush flora,  a crocodile farm, another fragile bamboo bridge, smiling faces everywhere.

Homeward, to Saigon -- the landscape criss-crossed with canals, rivers, waterways along which are narrow, tall buildings in various pastel colours. A doughnut seller greeted us with a large smile and an amazing display of his wares. "Hallo! Very  cheap. You like!" Ah, yes. We DO like -- Vietnam!