Mekong Delta – The River of Nine Dragons
Mekong Delta – The River of Nine Dragons
Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, also known as its ‘rice bowl’ is a beautiful scenic landscape, carpeted in myriad shades of green and surrounded with grand waterways. Dubbed as Vietnam’s biological treasure trove, the delta’s unexplored terrains have been home to over 10,000 new species.
There are simply so many interesting and amazing things to do outdoors in Vietnam, it’s no wonder that the Mekong Delta is so frequently visited.
A trip to the Mekong Delta will be a completely new experience for you and it will open you up to a world you have only seen on TV before.
The delta is a water world…literally, it has restaurants, houses, and even markets that are floating upon the Delta’s rivers, canals, and streams. Now that’s something you only see in futuristic movies, but it becomes oh so real in the Mekong Delta.
My trip to Mekong Delta was really amazing. I have had a lot of adventures in Vietnam, but this one tops the list. Just after breakfast at Saigon, our bus picked us up and we traveled to My Tho. From there, we set off on a cruise of the Tien River, and rejoiced in the view of the four lovely islands that we saw: Dragon Island, Unicorn Island, Turtle Island, and Phoenix Island.
This cruise was the highlight of the trip in my opinion, as we saw natural beauty aplenty on the islands. We also experienced the tranquil local villages around and saw many rural people working the rice fields. All this was quite simple and ordinary, yet we saw beauty in it. And yes, we did take pictures. We snapped several pictures of the amazing fisherman’s port and its stilt houses.
We had some local tropical fruits, and they were not only juicy but delicious too. After a little time, we found ourselves climbing into a small sampan boat, and were handed cute conical hats as well. We cruised through the serene waterways and canals in our sampan boat while soothing our ears with local folk music. The man rowing the sampan boat demonstrated his rowing skills as he moved the boat through the groves of water coconut trees.
We were taken to a bee farm, where there was a small market with items such as sunglasses, clothes, souvenirs etc. The time spent at the bee farm was really full of fun; we tried natural honey produced on the bee farm which was yummy. We also tasted the honey tea, which had some grains at the bottom, and was very delicious and sweet.
The boat stopped at too many shops, souvenir stands, and agricultural sites on its way forward on the Mekong Delta.
We took break for lunch and dined in at a local restaurant where we got to ate fresh spring rolls, rice, curries, grilled fish, fresh fruits, and more. Also, we got half an hour to ourselves to relax around in hammocks, and we enjoyed this part a great deal, before we set off with the tour to discover the rest of the natural bounties of the delta.
Then came the fun part, where we rode on motor carts to roam around the roads and down the jungle lanes. After a while, we headed to the coconut candy factory, which gave a true tourist feeling to us. At the factory we were offered coconut wine and we saw the production of sticky coconut candy. Then we headed back to the water once more to reach the mainland. The delta has quite a lot to charm its visitors with.
The name of the Mekong Delta literally translates as “River of Nine Dragons” and is home to nine tributaries that flow like arteries throughout the delta. It is a majestic place, and if you ever go to Vietnam, you must visit it.
