Monday, November 16, 2009

Our trip to the Mekong Delta

Last week we travelled down to the Mekong Delta. Biam was also allowed to come along as we couldn't find anyone to take care of him for a few days. He took the trip much better than most other times he were in the car with us. Perhaps he's got used to our car now.
Back in 2000 I often came down to Hòn Chông, a remote seaside place in Kiên Giang Province, to conduct training. Hòn Chông is the home of a Swiss-Vietnamese cement joint-venture as limestone mounts are abundant in the area. I liked the place and thought of having our second home there, instead of Tuysonvien, because it was so peaceful.
Nine years later and although there were more inhabitants, more houses, more shops... what I liked most - the beach ... was still very deserted, very quiet.




Should the distance be shorter to Ho Chi Minh city, Hòn Chông beach would be very popular with foreigners who wants to "get-away-from-it-all".
On the way to Hòn Chông, we stopped at Hà Tiên for dinner. Hà Tiên is on the border with Cambodia, so it actually is the western-most city of Vietnam. It was founded by Mạc Cửu, a Chinese refugee way back in the early 18th Century. Now we can see his statue on the entrance to the city.


Biam was very curious about the place and just wanted to run so my husband had to hold him tight.


When we were walking along Mũi Nai beach in Hà Tiên area, the sun was about setting so it reminded me of Lake Travis when, for the first time, I watched how the sun sunk into the water. It was very spectacular!


We went back up to Ho Chi Minh city via another route. This time we were driving along a canal, not knowing that it was Vĩnh Tế Canal, a very famous man-made waterway that every Vietnamese knows from their geography lessons.




The canal runs parallelly to the road we were travelling all the way up to Tịnh Biên, where there is another border-crossing to Cambodia.


The trip was well-worth our time. I'm looking to explore other regions of Vietnam next.

5 comments:

Stephanie said...

I remember this delta from my geography lesson in school :-) Do they plant paddy there? Thank you for this tour.

Btw, you can see those two dwarf plumeria varieties from www.plumeriaparadise.com - it's where I got the seeds.

Hà Xuân said...

Yes, Steph. Rice paddies are still dominant in this region. The photographs I took of the rice fields didn't turn out good enough as we were in the car, moving. Sorry about that.
I will check to see the dwarf plumeria.
Thank you.

lynn'sgarden said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
lynn'sgarden said...

Ah...it's been quiet on your blog~now we know why ;)
Thanks for sharing these lovely photos of your trip. I love the calm and peaceful feel of that beach. And what a view from that home! The delta, does it get busy with boat travellers during 'rush hour'?

Hà Xuân said...

Lynn, people in the Mekong Delta own boats much like you guys own cars, so yes there's rush hour when they need to go to the market to sell their home produces.
That house on the green hill is a B&B. We didn't stay there, though :-(