The University of British Columbia

On our second day in Da Lat, we booked a tour with a local company, and shortly after breakfast were picked up and headed out to the countryside for a full day tour. Our young, very enthusiastic tour guide was, as with our previous tour guides, in the tourist industry to practice his English. He was very knowledgeable and was a wonderful guide, delighting in telling us all about the crops, and industries of Da Lat. There were not quite enough seats on the bus, so we had to squeeze in, but by the end of the day we had all become quite friendly! There was a retired couple from the U.S., a student from London, England, a lawyer from Malaysia, an older professional couple from Ho Chi Minh, three sisters from Hanoi, a family of 4 and 2 young men who insisted on helping me down every slippery step, and rough walkway. It was very sweet.

We first visited the greenhouses to see the many kinds of flowers and vegetables grown in the Da Lat region. Flowers and produce are shipped all over Vietnam from here.

Coffee plantations on the hills of Da Lat region

From there we moved on to a coffee plantation. I was amazed to learn that Vietnam has grown to be one of largest producers of coffee in the world, second only to Brazil. The most fascinating thing about Vietnamese coffee is their production of what is known as ‘Weasel coffee”. The weasels, which are actually civet cats, look like a cross between a cat and a ring-tailed ferret. As it happens, civet cats are coffee connoisseurs. With their long noses, they sniff out and eat the best and fleshiest beans. Their digestive enzymes ferment the beans and break down the proteins.

Collected beans in civet cat poop!

These beans, harvested from the civet cat feces, create a coffee that tastes rich and slightly smoky with hints of chocolate. The beverage is known in Vietnamese as ca phe chon, or civet-cat coffee, and is also commonly produced in Indonesia and the Philippines. The coffee delivers a smooth, dark flavour that is stronger but, some say, less bitter than typical coffee. At specialised coffeeshops around the world, this coffee sells for around $30 a cup. Couldn’t quite bring myself to have a cup of coffee made from beans collected from civet cat poop, but I am told it is delicious!

Our next destination was a cricket farm. Crickets are raised and harvested in this area, and are washed, dried and packaged for sale as a snack throughout Vietnam.

Crickets served with hot sauce

This small family business harvests 20 kgs of crickets every month. Their main market is the restaurants of Da Lat and the surrounding region. After passing on the weasel coffee, the group I was travelling with was not going to let me dodge the crickets too. With a lot of encouragement, cajoling and some out right dares, I indulged. It’s amazing what you can eat if you put enough hot sauce on it! Actually, they were just fine, crunchy and a little nutty tasting. I do think however, that I got a leg stuck in my throat.

We all loaded back into the van and off we went to the silk worm factory. Production here starts at the very beginning, with the growing of the worms. Once they are mature they begin to spin their cocoons.

Silk worms

‘Unravelling’ the cocoons and spooling the silk threads

When the cocoons are complete they are harvested for the silk. They are placed in water and any that are not up to standard are removed from production. The factory was very noisy and I had difficulty keeping up with our guide and hearing the steps for harvesting the silk, but from what I could tell, workers begin by floating the cocoons in a trough of running water.

The cocoons soften and the silken threads of the cocoons begin to unravel. The threads were so fine I couldn’t see them, but the workers at these stations drew off a thread from each cocoon and attached it to a spooling system at the back of the trough. The cocoons bobbed in the water as they unravelled and the threads were collected on the spools. One small cocoon will yield 800-1,000 meters of silk thread! The larvae inside the cocoons are eventually revealed, and collected. They are also sold as a delicacy in city restaurants.

Silk being collected for weaving

The spools of raw thread are collected, and the silk is spooled onto larger wheels in preparation for weaving. The hands of the woman at this station moved so fast I could hardly see her tying off the spools (I tried to upload a video of this process, but unfortunately the file was too big).

Silk weaving machine

From here the silk is moved to a weaving machine and the fabric is made. All the power from these loud and seemingly archaic machines comes from the burning of the husks of the coffee beans from the plantation down the road. As in other aspects of Vietnamese life, nothing goes to waste. In the entrance to this factory were bolts of silk on display, in bright colours and beautiful patterns. It was astonishing to see the production in this small factory go from the actual silk worms themselves to beautiful silk fabrics. I am told that the silk fabric that is solid colours (no pattern) is of the highest quality and woven so tight, no pattern can be added.

Elephant waterfall

After we left the silk factory, we visited the ‘Elephant Waterfall’. We were able to hike down to the base of the waterfall and enjoy the cool breeze and moist air. Near the waterfall is the Linh An Tu Temple. This was a beautiful, cool, and peaceful place. I could have stayed here all day. We lit some incense and enjoyed the serenity. Many of the Temples of Vietnam  were build by the Chinese during their occupation of Vietnam, and the figures inside represent the ‘medium’ Gods as well as heros in Chinese history. The Pagodas on the other hand, are predominately Vietnamese and Khmer and are almost strictly Buddhist. The colours, and beauty of these temples and pagodas is unbelievable.

Behind the Linh An Tu Temple is the famous ‘Laughing Buddha’. Visitors are encouraged to rub the belly of the buddha for good luck. No easy feat as this Buddha statue is easily 20-25 feet tall.

Linh An Tu Temple

After leaving the Temple we all had lunch together and then headed back to the city to see some of the French build chalets that now function as hotels.

Laughing Buddha

It was the perfect end to a perfect day. Our tour guide dropped us off and we waved good bye to our newly made friends. I strongly recommend small tour groups like this as you can visit and get to know each other, learning so much more about the local culture, people and life experiences.

The last comment I want to make is pertaining to a sign that was posted on every floor of the hotel we stayed in. This request regarding how to behave in the hotel is symbolic of the Vietnamese people. They are hard working, innovative, curious, joyful and kind. I was always treated with the utmost respect and genuine good will.

Sign in the Gold Nights Hotel

As my time in Vietnam winds down, I am busy wrapping up my projects with the Gender & Community Department, going for coffee with colleagues (a common past time in Vietnam) and exploring Tra Vinh with other volunteers. I’ve also purchased some fabric and am having 4 articles of clothing made. Tailor made clothes is a common and very affordable practice in Vietnam and I’m very excited I was here long enough to have some pieces made.

The last travel adventure Andrea and I went on was to Da Lat. Located in the high lands in the central region of Vietnam, Da Lat is a common vacation destination for Vietnamese and foreigners alike. The French colonists were the first foreigners to discover this area and retreated to this region to escape the heat. The city contains many French inspired chalets that are now hotels. The surrounding highlands are lush and green and are home to Vietnam’s burgeoning coffee crops, flower gardens and vegetable crops. The streets of this small city are narrow and windy, and of course, busy with scooter traffic.

Da Lat Market

There is also a fantastic market displaying all kinds of vegetables including avocadoes and artichokes, dozens of kinds of fruits and fish, chicken, pork, beef and many other ‘unknown’ meats!

Assorted fish for sale

The market winds around the centre of town. The colours are fantastic and the smells pungent.

After enjoying the market, grabbing some lunch and a mango smoothie (they are so good!), armed with a map and suggestions from the hotel front desk clerk, we rented bikes and went off to explore some of the local sites. We headed up a hilly street to visit the Summer Palace of King Bao Dai, the last king of Vietnam.

King Bao Dai

From 1926 to 1945, Bao Dai was king of Annam. During this period, Annam was a protectorate within French Indochina, covering the central two-thirds of the present-day Vietnam. Bao Dai ascended the throne in 1932. The palace was build from 1933 to 1937 in art deco design, and was constructed as a retreating place King Bao Dai and his royal family (wife, 3 girls and 2 boys) could escape the summer heat, however after 1950, when the French colonial came back to Vietnam, the palace occupied a role as the office and house of the king. The rooms are large and boasted the most fashionable and luxurious amenities of the time.

Ornate palace room

The king’s bedroom also had a gorgeous balcony called the Watching Moon Balcony, where the king and queen could appreciate the moonlight on clear evenings. Unfortunately the beautiful and talented queen died of cancer at just 48, but the King went on to have many more wives, 2 Vietnamese, 3 French and 1 Chinese. With political change happening, Bao Dai moved to Paris in 1954 but maintained connections to Vietnam and apparently influenced the government, peace agreements and the reconciliation between Southern and Northern Vietnam. He never returned to live in Vietnam and died in Paris in 1997.

Our next destination was the Hang Nga Guesthouse, popularly known as the “Crazy House”. It is an unconventional building designed by Vietnamese (woman) architect Dang Viet Nga. The building’s design incorporates natural forms such as animals, mushrooms, spider webs and caves. The guesthouse was originally build as the architect’s personal project, but opened to the public in 1990.

Da Lat Crazy House

The building’s exterior resembles a five-story-high banyan tree, with unevenly shaped window openings and branch-like structures that “grow” along its walls and rise above the roof into the sky.

Crazy House Bird Room

The guesthouse has ten themed guest rooms, each one having an animal as its theme, including the tiger room, the eagle room, the ant room and the kangaroo room, each with decorations matching the theme. We couldn’t go into the rooms, but they looked very interesting and would be fun to stay in. I wasn’t able to find out the cost per night but I imagine it to be pricey. You also wouldn’t have much privacy with all the visitors!

After the Crazy House tour we headed back to the centre of town for dinner. The market transforms at night and the goods for sale are are all manner of local artists pocket purses, flower arrangements, carvings, scarves, and clothing. There are also food stands everywhere, so thick you can hardly pass and need to move in single file. There is a very wide stone set of stairs leading up to the centre of town, and every square inch is covered with goods and foods for sale. We wandered around visiting the stalls and enjoying the cool evening air. Such a relief! The abundance of flowers grown in and around Da Lat were for sale everywhere and the air was filled with their scent along with the smells of soup cooking, bar-b-qued meats, and roasted vegetables.

This was the end of our first day in Da Lat and we headed off to bed to prepare for our tour of the countryside the next day. See my next post!

While many of my blog posts have focused on my weekend travels around Vietnam, I have also been busy completing my volunteer mandate with the Gender and Community Department (GCD) at TVU. The staff I work with are wonderful, very committed to their work, and their knowledge level of gender issues and inequities is quite high. After taking some time to determine how I could best serve the GCD, we created a work plan and I have now developed and delivered 2 of the three workshops we have planned. The first workshop was on reducing barriers to physical activity for girls and women and was delivered to three members of the GCD staff. I approached this topic carefully, as sport and physical activity in ‘leisure time’ is seen as a luxury here and for good reason, not as necessary a focus as increasing job opportunities, access to resources, improved living conditions, political power, etc for girls and women. Many of the women, particularly in a rural area like Tra Vinh, work in the fields and doing other labour jobs. To suggest they go out and play tennis after a long day of physical labour would be ludicrous and disrespectful of their life experience. Rather I approached the topic from the perspective of improved health through regular physical/recreational activities for those in non-labour jobs, and the fact that research from the sport for development field suggests recreational activity for women and girls in developing countries builds skills and creates opportunities for networking and social mobility. In addition to providing resources for developing sport and physical activity opportunities for girls and women, I will be investigating possible funding sources from sport development organizations to assist the GCD in their pursuits, as I think that increased sport opportunities for girls and women, particularly at TVU, could improve their confidence, health and social opportunities.

The second  workshop I developed and delivered was for a broader audience at TVU and was on the topic of applying gender analysis to developing and delivering soft skills training to TVU students. There is a tremendous focus on developing soft skills for the up and coming work force all across Vietnam. The two departments responsible for delivering soft skills training for TVU students are the GCD and the Teaching and Learning Centre (TLC). The TLC is responsible for the quality and consistency of all teaching at TVU. They also work in collaboration with the GCD to deliver soft skills training that is gender and culturally sensitive. The soft skills workshops are on topics such as communication, leadership, negotiation, conflict resolution, etc. The third department to send delegates to the workshop was the Youth Union. This department is responsible for ensuring students are involved at all appropriate levels in the working of TVU. In total there were 16 people from these three different departments at the workshop. While I believe it went well, it is sometimes difficult to ‘read’ the participants, in light of the language barrier and cultural differences. I provided information on the topic and included activities to apply the new knowledge into the design of soft skills workshops. I focused on recognizing and acknowledging the different life experiences of female students and how their approach to time management, communication, conflict resolution might be different from their male counterparts. The participants responded well, and completed the activities with enthusiasm. When each group reported back to the larger group, it seemed they understood what I was trying to communicate, and integrated gender sensitive methods/strategies into their workshop design.

The last workshop I will deliver is on developing strategies to achieve gender equity in recruitment and hiring practices at TVU. This topic is not as familiar to me as the first two, so I have been spending the last week researching the content. I will focus on a few key strategies including using gender neutral language in all recruitment and hiring materials. I’ll also introduce the concept of affirmative action. I plan to relay the example of UBC’s recent 2% salary increase for all female tenure track faculty, to eliminate a recognized pay inequity between male and female faculty. We’ll also do an activity to analyze job advertisements from TVU to ensure they are gender inclusive. I’ve located a great job advertisement template on the UBC HR website that outlines all the fields to include, including an equity statement that invites women and minorities to apply. This will certainly be a new addition to TVU job advertisements. Lastly, we’ll discuss targeting hiring groups, and how to reach the women they want to encourage to apply. The audience of this workshop will the broadest yet, including vice-chiefs and chiefs (directors) of many departments at TVU. I’m not sure how many will attend, but the Rector of TVU has indicated this as a priority area, so all have been invited. This audience is also the group I know the least about; their understanding of gender equity concepts, their attitudes about equality and how they will respond to my suggestions. It will certainly be interesting.

When delivering these workshops, the powerpoint slides, handouts and any other materials need to be translated into Vietnamese prior to the workshop. While I present my powerpoint in English, the participants whose English is weak or nonexistent, can follow the content on the translated documents. I also have an interpreter that translates everything I say in the workshop. This takes considerable time, and I must trust that my translator communicates my meaning accurately. I am reasonably confident of this, as one of the GCD staff members, Kim Anh who is well versed in this material will translate for me. Kim Anh and I go through the material prior to each workshop to ensure she is clear on the content and meaning of the material.

In addition to preparing these workshops, I also had the opportunity to meet with Mr. Chinh, a manager in the Teaching and Learning Centre. The TLC recently launched a co-op program at TVU, the first in all of Vietnam. Surprisingly, the director of the TLC travelled last year to Vancouver Island and met with Lynda Robinson, Co-op Internship Coordinator at Vancouver Island University. Lynda provided consultation, and a co-op model for TVU to modify and implement for their students. The TVU co-op program is just 1 year old, and already has 59 students participating. The first two disciplines to implement co-op placements were Agriculture and Aquaculture. Two new programs will be launched this year in the Tourism and Fisheries programs. In discussion with Mr. Chinh, we discovered we have the same challenges: recruiting employers, ensuring good matches between students and employers, and delivering effective pre-employment training for students. I look forward to staying in touch with Mr. Chinh and following the progress of this exciting development at TVU.

I will be heading home in a week. I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone. I have very much enjoyed my work here at TVU and hope by the time I leave, I will have made a contribution to the work of the GCD and their mandate to increase gender equality in all the programs, procedures and policies at TVU.

Sorry, no pictures in this post, but watch this space for my entry on my weekend trip to Da Lat. I’ll include lots of pics and stories about a silk work farm, the summer palace of the last king of Vietnam, a cricket farm, and weasel poop coffee! Stay tuned!

A sea of scooters at an intersection in Can Tho

As a Westerner, one of the most challenging things to get used to in South East Asia (and many other developing countries of the world) is the chaos of the traffic. There are many more scooters than cars, particularly as you move farther out into the rural areas. Cars are extremely expensive, and scooters are economical, affordable, and can be ridden all year around. The challenge however, for a Westerner who is used to lots of space, traffic that obeys the rules of staying on your own side of the road, and observance of ‘right of way’ walking, riding, or driving in this traffic is an absolute nightmare. Corners are a free for all, as scooters, bikes and cars, find space wherever they can, and drive on the wrong side of the road until they can find a break in the traffic to turn or move through the intersection. It is astounding that there are not more accidents. Our first day in Ho Chi Minh was terrifying as crossing the road as a pedestrian means taking your life in your own hands. I have been long accustomed to having the right of way as a pedestrian. This is not the case in Vietnam.

It is your job to dodge and weave to get through the traffic. With a little practice, and more than a little nerve, you can however, manage to get across the street. I have come close to a collision a few times, but feel I have mostly got the hang of crossing when I need to (can’t stay on one side of the road forever).

Because most families own only a scooter, and have no access to a car or truck, anything and everything they need must to be transported on their scooter. This ranges from the week’s groceries, building supplies (including ladders), goods to go to the market, tv’s, and just about everything else you can imagine. I even saw two guys on a scooter with a full length door between them. As you can imagine, the scooters laden with all sorts of goods can present something of a danger to the traffic and pedestrians around them. I was able to experience this first hand. While in Can Tho and walking along a path to a fruit garden, we met two men on a scooter who had just turned the corner and were going to pass us on the path. Fortunately I was paying attention, because as the scooter came around the corner towards me I could see that the man on the back was carrying some long metal rods, about 5 of them, each an inch or two in diameter in basket slung across his shoulder and the rods were sticking out to the side across the path. As the scooter sped towards me I realized the rods were heading right for my head. Luckily, my cat like reflexes kicked in and I ducked just in time. If I hadn’t, I would have spent the next few days in a dental office for sure, and that is not a place you want to be in Vietnam. My ‘near orthodontic’ experience reminded me of the importance of staying alert as your risk of a close encounter with a scooter, or it’s cargo, is very high.

The Buddha Bike

I have also seen a number of ‘mobile businesses’ on the back of scooters. This includes popcorn machines, sandwich stands, and goods for sale. My favourite was the picture seen here of what I call the ‘Buddha Bike’. This couldn’t have been easy to balance and steer.

In addition to carrying goods, scooters also need to transport entire families. Kids ride on the front, behind ,and wear helmets if they are big enough. If the child is too small, there are no helmets! It made me absolutely crazy to see tiny babies held in a mother’s arms, or a toddler standing up on the seat between two adults as the scooter sped through traffic. If a single adult is transporting a toddler, they are usually in a small wicket chair that is like a little high chair and is wedged between the adult and the handle bars.

Family of five flying down the highway near Can Tho

What is particularly ironic is that these little wicker chairs have a simple seatbelt to keep the toddler ‘safe’. Everyone wears a face mask over their mouth and nose to guard against the dirt and exhaust. It seems little help, but considering there are little to no regulations regarding emissions, these masks seem like a good idea. While I have ridden on the back of a scooter with friends and colleagues in Tra Vinh, I wouldn’t attempt this myself. I do however get around on a bicycle. It took me a few days to get up the nerve to venture out on my bike, but once you get the hang of it, it’s not so bad. There is something very freeing about no traffic rules! I have become ‘assertive’, maybe even a little ‘aggressive’ if I am cut off! As this happens constantly, you have to develop a little assertiveness or you’d never get anywhere! I don’t however have a helmet to wear on my bike, but as the saying goes…..’When in Rome…”. You can be lulled into a false sense of security, as surprisingly I have not see a single accident until tonight. We were out at one of the many outside restaurants, and while eating our Pho, heard a tremendous crash. Two scooters had hit each other head on. A few people rushed out to see if the riders were okay and to help them get up and get going again. One of the riders seemed to have not been hurt at all and in a few minutes he was on his way (no license information was exchanged), but the other rider kept holding the side of his head, and limped off, pushing his scooter which refused to start. I am wondering about this man tonight as I am certain he suffered a concussion. This is likely a daily occurrence as traffic fatalities are one of the leading causes of death in Vietnam. I think I’ll be extra careful when I am out on my bike tomorrow!

While in Can Tho last weekend, after visiting the floating market, our delightful and energetic young tour guide took us down a canal of the river to visit a noodle factory. This small family run business makes 500 kg of rice vermicelli noodles every day. The work is unbelievably hot in work conditions that are certainly not up to Canadian labour standards.

Step One: Wash, soak and drain the rice

First the rice is washed and soaked for 4 hours. It is then cooked down to fine, thin, white liquid.  A small cup of the rice liquid is spooned onto a 24 inch hot stone surface.

Step Two: Cooking the noodles

The stone is heated from underneath by a hotly stoked fire. The fuel for this fire is the raw husks of the rice; nothing is wasted in this process. Once the rice liquid is thinly spread on the hot stone, a wok like lid is placed over it to steam the noodles from above. While this ‘noodle disc’ is cooking, a second stone is covered with the noodle liquid, spread, and the cover from the first stone is moved to the second stone. The woman (there were two stations like this and both were women cooking the rice discs) moves back and forth constantly between the two stones, cooking a disc every 10-15 seconds. When the wok lid is removed, a second worker (both were men) uses a small whisk type hand broom to roll the disc off the stone, and gently lay on a bamboo rack to dry.

Step Three: Removing the rice disc from the hot stone

While the person doing this task seemed to be doing it effortlessly, I suspect it took considerable skill to keep from tearing this very hot, VERY thin rice disc.

Step Four: Placing the hot rice disc on the drying racks

When there were four discs on a rack, they were stacked and then moved out to an open yard area to dry in the sun.

Step Five: Our guide Ngoc standing next to the drying noodles

It is currently the dry season in Southern Vietnam, so noodle production is at it’s peak. As the rainy season approaches, production picks up even more, because during the two months of rain, noodle production must stop, as there is no provision to dry the noodles other than the drying racks in the open yard.

Once the noodles are dry and plastic-like discs, they are then stacked and brought back into the covered area to be sliced into thin noodles and bagged for shipment. It was quite fascinating to watch this process, particularly considering the lack of safety conditions, the heat and the repetitive tasks of the workers. For example, in the last photo you will notice the woman with her hand on the rollers on the top of the machine. Her job was to feed the noodle discs in between these rollers, where they were thinly sliced by sharp blades and ‘caught’ by the woman sitting below the machine. There were no safety gloves, eye protection or any other safety equipment for either worker at these stations. In addition, at one point another worker (who was shirtless) assumed the role of  feeding the noodle discs into the slicer, and proceeded to smoke a cigarette, while he performed his work. Just as we were leaving, everyone took a break for lunch and I noticed that they were all sitting down to eat instant ramen noodles! I guess when you make that many rice vermicelli noodles in a day, you can’t stand the thought of eating them!!

So with our first week of work under our belt, Andrea and I decided it was time for a vacation! As we had little time to plan, we chose to visit the nearby city of Can Tho. About 70 kms away, the best way to travel was by local bus. The buses run between the towns and cities of the province, picking up and dropping off people along the way, often at stops along the highway. With all these stops, the 70 km trip was to take about 2 hours. We booked a hotel in Can Tho and headed off to the bus station on Saturday morning. My work supervisor Xuan, made sure we got to the bus station, and assisted us in buying our tickets which were 60,000 Vietnamese Dong one way ($3 CDN). She also gave us a note written in Vietnamese to give to the taxi driver in Can Tho so he would take us to the right hotel! The bus is like a long mini van, and although not luxurious, with the windows open it was breezy and reasonably comfortable. In addition to the driver, there was a ‘conductor’. This woman collected fares and tickets, and literally seemed to know everyone who got on the bus, in addition to everyone at the stops along the way. Many of the travelers were clearly regulars, and the conductor took great pleasure in greeting them all, and wishing them well when they got off. We even stopped once for her to get out and pray at a small shrine on the other side of the road. In 5 minutes she was back and we were on the road again!

In the almost 3 hours it took to reach Can Tho, we traveled through farmland, mostly dry and fallow as it is the dry season in Southern Vietnam. Much of the area along the road was also built up, and we drove past businesses, shops, and restaurants. The buildings are usually wide open in the front and you can look right into the room facing the road. It is not unusual that a business functions as a motorbike sales centre or kitchen goods shop by day, and then in the evening, transforms to a small restaurant. Then later, a gate that spans the entire front of the building is drawn across and bolted, and the family, who runs the business(es), heads off to bed in the back or upstairs. While the sights were interesting, it is very difficult to see the level of garbage that is strewn everywhere. Garbage is literally just thrown on the ground, is dumped by businesses, and is a tremendous eye sore. For a Westerner, this is particularly difficult to see. Eventually the Vietnamese will need to tackle this problem, and hopefully when they finally do, it won’t be too late. The clean up will certainly take many years, and even longer to change the mentality and habits of the Vietnamese people, industries, and businesses.

Can Tho is a busy centre of trade and business for the province of Tra Vinh. Located in the centre of the province on the Can Tho River, a large tributary of the Mekong, Can Tho is famous for their ‘floating markets’. As the market opens at dawn, and does all their business by mid morning, you need to get up very early to get out to see it at it’s peak. We booked a tour from our hotel, received a wake up call, and were on the water with our guide by 6am. It was beautiful to be on the water that early and we watched the sun come up as the fishing boats passed us.

Fishing on the Can Tho River

Can Tho Floating Market

Farmers from around the province arrive by boat to Can Tho and moor there in a broad stretch of the river, creating a ‘floating market’. All kinds of produce are sold: tomatoes, melons, lettuce, etc. Many of the boats belong to the Khmer farmers and have a fish face painted on the front.

‘Fish Faced’ Khmer boats

Most of the Khmer people are Buddhist, and the face on the boat serves two purposes. First, the face is meant to scare off the large fish of the river and keep the boat safe. Second, once the farmer has sold his/her produce at the market, the fish at the front of the boat guides them home and ensures they arrive safely. The boats are plentiful and colourful, and serve as ‘home’ for the farmers for the week or so they are in Can Tho to sell their produce. Because, their stay is up to a week, the farmers need supplies, so small boats with food and household supplies come around and service the boats of the market. These boats are packed to the hilt with supplies and do a good business. You can also buy lunch, breakfast and a coffee all on the water if you like! It truly is a ‘floating market’!

Supply boat for floating market merchants

Whole families travel on the boats to the market, including small children. I saw one toddler wandering around the deck of a boat and was quite concerned for his safety until I realized he had a tether tied to his ankle to keep him from falling overboard!

Family life on the Floating Market

After touring around the market, we boated down a smaller side canal to visit a noodle factory (post to follow!) and a fruit garden where we enjoyed bananas, check fruit, plums and mango. We also saw pineapples, dragon fruit and limes growing in the orchard. On the way back to the dock, which took about 45 minutes, we relaxed, sat back and enjoyed our boat ride on the Mekong. The breeze was comfortable and we passed fishing boats, tourist boats and homes that bordered the river.

Homes along the rivers edge

Many of the homes are precariously close to falling into the water, and in fact some have done just that in recent years. The government has built a few concrete walls along the river’s edge to halt the erosion, and has compensated those homeowners whose homes collapsed into the river. I watched women washing their clothes in the river, and our guide told us that many families still cook and wash using water from the river, but that they can no longer drink from it because of the level of pollution. Not surprising, considering the amount of obvious garbage that can be seen floating in the river, not to mention what has surely been dumped by factories, businesses, and the city sewers.

It was only 10-15 years ago, that those living on the river could drink directly from it. Now they are required to buy bottled water that is produced by the government.

Living along the river

I’ll finish with one of my favourite images of life on the Mekong. A simple fishing boat with the fisherman perched on the front. This is an enduring image in Vietnam, particularly in the Mekong Delta region. I hope that this way of life can be protected through conservation, environmental controls, and a shift in attitudes and practices in regards to waste management. If not, this may become an image of the past.

Fisherman on the Can Tho River