The Mekong River

Cai Be, Vietnam

We check out of the Saigon hotel and pile onto the bus for a 90 minute drive to My Tho on the Mekong River.

The boat is cozy with about 25 cabins. Ours is right next to the dining room and the landing dock. Our cabin has two bunks on the opposite sides of the  room. They are built-in so we wave at each other at bedtime.

We visit the riverside village of Cai Be in the afternoon. They are making rice krispies and peanut brittle for export to Saigon. It's a small scale operation.

The villagers are also distilling rice wine, which has the taste and kick of white lightning. I can buy a bottle with a cobra in it for 550,000 dongs but it won't pass TSA scrutiny with our carryons.

We have duck for dinner and a native four piece band come aboard for entertainment in the evening. Their instruments are traditional and non-western. The scale they use is not "do-re-me-fa-so-la-te-do".

We'll be rossing into Cambodia today or tomorrow...I'm not sure when.