No Wonder We Lost the War

A little Mekong Delta History:


The Mekong Delta was once part of Khmer Kingdom (builders of the Temples of Angkor Wat), and it was the last part of modern Vietnam to be annexed and settled by Vietnamese in the 18th century. Cambodians still call the area Kampuchea Krom (lower Cambodia). In the 1970's, the Khmer Rouge raided villages and killed the inhabitants in attempt to reclaim the land. This is what prompted Vietnam to invade Cambodia and depose the Khmer Rouge.

We were told we had a long day ahead of us and had to start earlier than 10:00 am, so we got up when awakened by the usual sounds of Asians in the early morning.............talking, eating noodle soup, children playing, and everyone acting as though it's noon. Phyllis ate a breakfast of eggs, baguette, fruit and coffee. I drank coffee and made egg baguette sandwiches, wrapping them up until my body can handle food..............10:00 am. We were back on the long boat and cruising down the Mekong by 8:30 am. This area of the Mekong was very wide, thus rough, and water was splashing all over us. We pulled out a rain poncho and tried to shield ourselves.

P- You think this area is wider than the Mississippi?

G- I definitely do.

P- Even that area near the Huey P. Long Bridge?

G- Yes. I think the Mekong is wider than the widest section of the Mississippi.

Through most of the journey, the captain stood with one leg over the motor's handle and controlled it with his thigh. The motor vibrated something fierce and we had our suspicions that he had ulterior motives to the location where he kept the handle. We had to stop frequently to remove plastic bags from our prop. It happened so frequently that we could recognize the hesitation of the motor the minute a bag wrapped around the prop. The captain would kill the engine and pull it around so that he could reach the prop and unwrap the bag.

P- The design of the motor was so ingenious

G- But the sad thing is that the waterways are so full of garbage that boat motors have to be designed in such a way to allow the captain to easily unwrap the garbage from the propeller without having to get into the water.

P- Yes, it's an ecological nightmare!

G- The crazy thing is that he throws the bag or whatever garbage it is right back into the water. Hello!! If you morons would stop throwing trash into the waterways, and at the very least, keep it in your boat and dispose of it properly after you unwrap it from your propeller, then you wouldn't have this problem.

P- It seems like common sense doesn't it?

G- One would think it is obvious.

P- Common sense is not so common.

G- Don't turn around. He's now peeing off the side of the boat. I have no idea why his back is not to us, but it's not.

P- LMAO!!!

G- Watch him restart the engine. It's done with a crank just like the old Model T cars.

P- That's amazing. I've never seen a boat engine start with a crank.

G- That boat motor is not what we're use to. It looks more like a generator mounted on a long pole with a propeller on the end.

P- It may be a lawn mower motor, but very effective.

We took a spin through an area where a floating market was concluding for the day, then returned to the Mekong. I stood for a long time to prevent getting drenched even though the captain was going as slowly as he could. When the waves splashing into the boat subsided, I sat next to Phyllis.

P- I don't like the amount of water in the bottom of this rickety old boat.

G- I did see the captain bailing some of it out with a plastic bowl. We're fine. We're still sitting high above the water. Ask Thom about it if it'll make you feel better. Good luck getting him to understand what you're asking.

P- Yes, our English guide sucks when it comes to speaking English! If he translated for Westmoreland during the war, it's no wonder America lost the war. Look at him, now he's asleep with a lit cigarette in his hand. Glad we paid extra for a guide.

G- It never ceases to amaze me the way Asians can fall asleep anywhere. Maybe if they'd just sleep past 5:00 am, they wouldn't fall asleep all day long.

P- I think he's going to drop that cigarette!

No sooner did she utter the words than the cigarette fell from his fingers landing in the bottom of the boat. This woke him up.

P- Well, now I'm happy the bottom of the boat is full of water. At least now we don't have to worry about it catching fire.

G- Bwahahahahaha! Gladys, you crack me up. Let him go back to sleep. I'm tired of him telling us the same stories over and over again. And I have so much trouble understanding what he's saying, it gives me a headache.

P- He's like grandpa.

G- But grandpa is 94 years old!!!

P- He falls asleep easily and keeps telling us the same story. If I have to hear about his son, the Catholic priest, one more time, I'm gonna scream.

G- He's proud of him. Maybe he'll make bishop in 10 years.

P- So I've heard, but as a recovering Catholic, I'm tired of him telling us about the Catholic church and speaking to us in Latin. Hello! I don't speak Latin! I thought we hired you to speak to us in English.

G- Latin. English. What difference does it make what he's speaking? We can't understand him. I hadn't realized that 20% of Vietnamese are Catholic.

P- With the number of Catholic churches we've seen, you'd think it was more than that.

G- In America there is this notion that Communist governments are anti-religion and don't allow any religious freedoms. That is obviously not the case. I suspect that much of what is thought in America about Communist governments is inaccurate.



In this very wide area of the Mekong we saw a lot of industry and fewer Vietnamese people. We did, however, see many catfish and water hyacinth farms along the banks, and we passed several suspension bridges that Thom called Australian bridges because they were designed by Australians. Thom told us that we would be in My Tho by 1:00 pm.



G- I thought we had a long day ahead of us.

P- That's what he said.

G- So why are we here at 1:00 pm?

P- I don't know. Didn't Triet say it was 2 full days?

G- Yes. Let me look at the contract. Damn! We were supposed to bike around An Binh island in the morning.

P- Well that pisses me off! It makes me even angrier because I asked Thom if we could stop at Ben Tre, right across the river from My Tho so I could buy some coconut candy that they are supposedly famous for and he told me we didn't have time.

G- Well that was B.S. We have time. The truth is that WE didn't have a long day today, HE had a long day because he's taking a bus back to Can Tho tonight.

P- Well we paid a lot for this tour and it was supposed to last 2 days.

G- There's nothing we can do about it now, but I'm going to email Mr. Triet about it and express our displeasure.

P- Yes, tell him.

The captain docked the boat and Thom advised that he was going to come with us to lunch. Thom carried one of our bags and we took off in search of a hotel. We had only walked about 15 minutes when we stopped at My Hung Hung Hotel and took a very nice room for $10.00. We put our bags in the room and went in search of lunch. Again we felt roped into buying not only Thom lunch, but the captain too. We paid the final installment, gave each of them their 'expected' tip, and parted ways at the restaurant and Thom went off to the bus station while the captain went back to his boat.

P- Why do we keep allowing this to happen? We should have parted with them at the hotel. We can find our own food.

G- I know. Why are we buying them lunch and give them a tip when we're pissed about how this day has gone?

P- Plus, they basically tell us what to eat and just order stuff.

G- (sigh) I guess this is the difficulty of traveling on our own and not with a tour group.

P- I hate tour groups.

G- Yes, me too, but this is the byproduct of doing everything ourselves with the language barrier and when we never can compare apples to apples and we never know exactly what we're getting ourselves into until after it happens.

P- Everything was spelled out on the contract we signed with Mr. Triet. We should have reread it last night.

G- I know. I completely enjoyed the tour, and it was a private tour tailored to exactly what we wanted, so I am thankful that Mr. Triet upheld his end of the bargain, but I'm aggravated that we got short changed. Also, I think we over paid, but we don't know if we did or not.

P- Well, it's done and we can't let it ruin the trip. I thoroughly enjoyed it too.

We did rehash the situation throughout the evening and I tried to figure out how to prevent it from happening again, but the bottom line is that we can't. We are doing very well considering that we're traveling alone, throughout Asia, and simply because of how we look we are targets for every fraudulent scheme someone can dream up. Thank Gawd we're very street smart and skeptical of everyone and everything!

* Note:  We later confirmed that the price of the tour was fair and we do recommend using Mr. Triet's services.