Magnificent, Mighty, Majestic, Massive...Mekong

Words just simply fail me in trying to describe how immensely wide the Mekong is.... well in this case how sheerly enormous the northenmost branch (out of 8 branches) of the Mekong that fan out in the Mekong Delta as it meanders into the sea. Even with a wide angle lens i could not capture the effect of its overwhelming size adequately... i think i would have needed an eagle eye lens or an aerial viewfrom a low flying helicopter to achieve that. Anyway here are 3 pics of the Mekong river from different points taken while i was in a boat on the river itself.
A bridge under construction
Riverside town of My Tho.
On the left is a multi-level ferry that serves the local area and the right is an ocean liner... obviouly this is a very deep river!
My Tho is the nearest Mekong river town to Saigon only 1.5hrs away bus. Along the way the landscape changed from obviously dry land to a distinctly aqua-based agricultural area as evidenced by the vast paddy fields we passed by. Many of the farms also their own ponds or mini canals to take advantage of the rich waters of the Mekong. An interesting thing to see was that most farms/houses in the area had graves within their own land, part of the local ancestor worship tradition and also the old wives tale logic is that it prevents your children from selling the land due to gambling/drinking debts as both vices are widespread in this bountiful Mekong delta region.
If you look in the middle of this paddy field you can see one of those ancestral graves I was talking about.
Despite the fact that we were still inland and the ecosystem was more like a muddy mangrove swamp, the islands we visited still had a seaside feel to them especially in the idyllic lifestyle of the locals. The people of the Mekong delta region take “lepaking” very seriously and their favourite way of doing so are on hammocks (obviously an American influence) which are everywhere, even some of the coffeeshops have hammocks instead of chairs!!
Some of the locals in their hammocks.
As part of our 1 day (more like 5hr) tour in the area, we took boats to 2 islands in the driver to visit a coconut plantation, honey farm and fruit orchard.
Of all things we saw them making doldol…!!
Or as they very commercially label it “coconut candy”.
Some interestingly carved coconut souvenirs.
A Shaded pathway in the fruit orchard we visited.
On the 1st island we had a half hour bike ride:-
On the 2nd island we had a row-boat (sampan) ride. In fact we had to change boats a few times so we got to try 3 types of boats, firstly the 36 seater that brought us across the Mekong.
A 12 seater that we had to transfer to as our boat was too big to go upriver on the 1st island itself.
The sampan which was just for a joy-ride through a narrower river on the 2nd island.
All the boats seems to have a common blue color and traditionally Mekong delta boats have eyes painted on the front as advised by their local shamans (nice to know we Malaysian’s aren’t the only ones dependent on the good old “bomohs”). If you look at the front of the Mekong river boats below you will see the “eyes” painted on the boats where the tyre is (no that’s not a spare tyre, its for cushioning the impacts of dockings)
Most of the rivers/canals within the islands were lined by sea-coconut palms on their banks.
The sea coconut flower.
Seeing the Mekong at its delta was awe-inspiring as the river is simply so immense, well after 4500km and flowing all the way from Tibet, through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand (its actually the laos-thai border) and Cambodia, what do you expect. In Viet Nam where it branches into 9 river mouths as it meets the sea, it's known as "cuu long" which means 9 dragons. I definitely hope to return for a longer tour further into the Mekong Delta region one day to explore another 'dragon'.