I’m not a huge fan of guided tours, but when time is short they are sometimes the only rapid way to explore an area and such was the case with the Mekong Delta. It would usually take half a day to reach the Mekong Delta from Ho chi Minh City/Saigon, but thanks to Saigon River Express we had a rapid 90 minute speed boat trip which was fascinating in its own right as we saw some of the back yard of the ‘houses’ which back on to the Saigon river (I didn’t want to think about their plumbing)
The Mekong Delta is a huge area where the Mekogn River empties into the sea through a network of distributaries, it covers an area of 39,000 square kilometres and is home to over 17 million people…. The trip got more interesting once we turned off the main river & headed into a few of the villages that are scattered throughout the Delta (apologies, but sound in this video is just camera mic)
We stopped at a village and had a look around, fascinating to see their horticulture…
We were followed everywhere in the village by a gang of kids, but when we went to get back on the speed boat they all disappeared off on their bikes… Five minutes down the river they were waiting for us on a bridge and as soon as we were in sight they shrieked & one of them jumped off the bridge into that murky water… I thought to myself: hmmm I bet the immune system is strong in that kid!
Next stop was a market and unlike the sprawling markets in Saigon which are aimed as much at tourists as anyone else, this was a market for the locals.. Some of those earlier photos of markets were taken here, but here are a few more:
Apparently this was the I.T. guys workshop
As we were walking through this covered market I heard this great heavy rattle sound and wondered what the hell it could be, as it was very intermiitent & randomnly timed… As we got closer I realised there was a narrow bridge across the river and the bridge was low enough to be the ceiling in one part of the market – the rattle was created every time someone on a scooter went racing across this bridge… It reminded me of two experiences in my past, first in a great ramen noodle bar in Kobe, Japan which is directly underneath a train line and every time a train runs overhead the entire building shakes! I never recorded it, but will next time I visit Kobe… The other time was on the West Coast of the South Island, I think I was trying to record a river but a big truck went over the bridge and the bridge rattles were phenomenal. I’ve used that sound in various ways many times, so when I heard these bridge rattles I knew it was worth recording. And its a sound I’ll never forget, especially as its tagged as ‘Bridge Rattles, Mekong Delta Market’
Bridge Rattle Mekong Delta Market by timprebble
We walked across the bridge and I stopped to record some close up passbys, but also ended up recording some cute kids who wanted to practice their english on this weird looking tall tourist who was shooting video with one hand and holding two weird little microphones with the other!
I had hoped to record some ambiences in the bush/jungle, village and surrounding areas but we just never stopped long enough, which is, of course to be expected with a guided tour… Even recording that bridge I got seperated from the group for about ten minutes and had to keep an eye on which way they had gone so I could catch up with them… I wish I’d recorded a few of the boats on the main river, as they often had no exhaust muffler at all & you could hear the pistons firing like controlled rhythmic explosions as the boats chugged along the river… But the other funny boats on the river were these long narrow boats with what looked like a lawn mower engine on the back, maybe the river equivalent to the inner city scooter (although thankfully there weren’t so many of them!) Apologies again as its camera mic…
It was a fun trip & a welcome break from Saigons relentless activity… Saigon River Express were great hosts – highly reccomended!
