Day 9 – Cau Dac – Sua Lac

After our border crossing the day before, we awake in Cau Dac and after breakfast head off on our first excursion in Viet Nam. I am not looking forward to this as I cannot see how I am going to enjoy a fish farm. Outdoor or otherwise. Even though I am very interested to see how fish are grown on the Mekong and to hear about the lives of the people who make the river their home. Anyone who knows me will attest to the fact I have a problem with strong odors, especially fish rendering.

Though here we are! The first are penned in these areas in the floor, and enclosed in areas that are fenced off under the water. During the times of year when the current is strong the water is naturally circulated by the rivers current, during slack current they are turbines at one end of the enclosure to provide an artificial current.

The food that the fish are fed are a mixture of anchovies and grain which are ground up and cooked in a large smelly outdoor oven. Here is a picture of the shrimp. The mashing hopper, and our guide feeding the fish with some already prepared food.

When it is time to bring the fish to market, the family members will get in the pens with large nets and transfer them to large containers to bring them to the large sorting warehouses to be taken to market or for export.

We then are taken into the village proper, and are greeted by these signs wishing us a Happy New Year ‘Chuc Mung Nam Moi’ which was celebrated a month before we arrived.

We them met up with out Vietnamese Cyclo drivers, and if you look at these photo’s you can see a remarkable difference from the Cambodian Cyclo’s. The seats are located in the rear and the drivers are in front.

Here is a typical Vietnamese Street in Chu Lac, and the traditional conical straw hat, the nan la’ worn by a Vietnamese woman.

A Vietnamese family outside their home, enjoying the day! Again it was really nice to see people smiling when taking their picture. Something you always seem at odds doing in Korea.

I don’t normally crop my photos in post-production, and I should have been using a faster f-stop, but I wanted to highlight this child. Somehow he must have known Mi Jung was Korean. There is the Koran photo v.

Here is a watermelon vendor, that I was tickled to get his photo.

This is a traffic circle, while I was surprised I did not see as much patriotic artwork as I did when I was in Saigon and Nha Trang in 2006, it does this exist.

I am disgusted with myself every time I see this picture! Had I had been paying attention to some of my other photo’s, I would not have made this simple exposure mistake! The framing on this is PERFECT! However since I was moving and only shooting with a shutter speed of 1/25 and ISO 100, the faces are blurred. The compromise here, is that I needed a bigger depth of focus. I should have been at f8. Aperture Priority but ISO 400 or even 800! You can always reduce noise in post, however you can’t fix blown focus!

Get your hot fresh Dung here!

Mobile produce markets in Viet Nam, This picture was for Kai Man Wong from Digital Rev www.digitalrev.com, since I blogged about them and he always takes pictures of Hong Kong cart women.

We finished our Cyclo ride and were taken to large Vietnamese market. Where of course I bought myself a Non La.  They sold quite a bit of different merchandise.

From Backpacks featuring all your favorite Anime Characters (Doreamon, and Hello Kitty)

To Fresh Fruits and vegetables.

Here is Mi Jung haggling over the price of gold. (Was she drawn here by the gold, or the name Kim?)

Here is Mi Jung buying some clothing items, it was always fun to watch her try and figure out the Conversion (About 22,000 VND per dollar..)

Our afternoon excursion was to a Vietnamese village in Sau Lac, and a “Monkey” bridge.
This is a monkey bridge, in case you were wondering.

As we pulled up to the village along the river, it looks like they sent a scouting party out for us.

The village we visited as a farming village that grew a multitude of crops. Here is their pepper crop, with the RV Jahan in the background.

We arrive in the village, and are presented with a fruit snack. This is all food that is grown locally. The large spiny fruit that you see, is the infamous fruit called Durian.

Mi Jung decided to be the first ‘victim’ on the Monkey Bridge, as she cautiously makes her way to the middle.

Here I am! Of course had to lose my hat!

We then went to an older Vietnamese couple’s house, and were severed tea entertained by the masters skills playing the ‘Dan bau’, which is a single string instrument, from the zither family, and similar to the Duxianqin in Southern China.

Ong was also quite adept at playing the guitar, though he did not know any Hendrix.

His wife wasn’t bad belting out the Viet standards either, I was going to push my welcome and ask for some Tanh Ha, or Trish Thuy Trang, but decided to keep my mouth shut.

After all I was being watched..

Outside in the village proper we were treated to a performance that took my breath away. A Chinese Dragon dance. I was excited because I was actually going to try and go to Hong Kong to see one of these dances. These dances are usually done for traditional New Year, and Lunar New Year ‘Tet’.

Here is the Mask Character taunting the Dragon.

Don’t tell anyone…

The agility and the strength of these children to maneuver with this heavy costume is amazing, not to mention when you’re the guy in front, with your feet off the ground. A lot of trust in your team behind you.

After the Dragon Dance, it was time to go back to ship, to head further down the Me Kong towards Sai Gon. Here is our Vietnamese guide rounding us up.

The Shadow walks the gang plank.

And so ends another night on the mighty Me Kong!

Be sure to stop by again, for our last night and farewell party aboard the RV Jahan!

Thanks for following our journey!