Mekong Delta Life.

Vietnam is a monsoon country, that means it rains about six months or more each year. Yet, its people don't take the rain seriously, probably because it's refreshing to get around in the rain unless it's a not so common chilly stormy rain. During the rainy season, it rains almost every afternoon, but people still prefer to take shelter or just ignore the rain completely.

People of the Mekong Delta live along the water ways, pontoons (I'm not sure if it's the correct word, please advise me) of all shapes and sizes are built to serve the everyday chores involving washing.

This one really struck me, I had to stop and took a picture then I asked the people nearby about the pontoon's usability. Everybody said it was quite OK to use it. For me, I doubted it knowing from my experience how the people there disregarded any notion of safety. My doubt was confirmed when an old woman came forward and spoke softly that she was the owner of the pontoon and she did fall into the water a few times!

Only a few minute ride later, I found another unusual construction. Well, not one but two bridges side by side. The first thought that came to my mind was that there must be something wrong with this neighborhood but still could not figure out exactly how. Then I talked to the kids playing nearby, they said there had been a feud going between two families living next to each other, so they had to build and use their own bridge!

This climbing vine gives a crunchy vegetable called 'dau rong' (dragon bean) eaten raw with 'mam chung' (steamed mam and ground pork). The beans in this picture are still young.

This pontoon was still submerged at high tide. I wish I had a model ready to pose her in ao dai sitting or lying on the pontoon to make an interesting picture.

For some reason, ground cover is not widely used for landscaping in Vietnam. This specie of ground cover doesn't put out lots of flower but its leaves are deep green and look robust.

This wild and thorny grass called 'mac co' (shy) intrigued me when I was a child, when touched or agitated by the wind, its leaves would close a long while then would reopen again.

In Viet poetry and music, this flower is called 'hoa trinh nu' (virgin flower)

Mekong Delta Flood.

To me, this aqua flower is a symbol of the annual flood, it looks so beautiful under the bright sun when the flood is settled, its name is Tra`ng.

This is a wild water lily, its petals are always white, I just love its warm and sincere scent.

This house is flood ready all the way. Notice the canoe moored in the back.

People live peacefully with the flood, either wading in water or using canoe to haul things to and from the market.

The row of flooded 'gao' trees is partly covered at the top by the yellow 'to hong' (cupid) vines. It took me quite sometime to get to this location and by the time my canoe reached the good shooting spot, the stormy rain started falling. I had only seconds to hurry my shots and ordered my rowers to quickly find a safe shelter as thundering lightnings tore the dark sky. Days ago, a couple were struck by lightning only a few kilometers away, the husband and his wife were charred with the portable radio held by the woman turned into a black metal cube.

A few weeks later, I returned and moved closer to the vines to take a better shot of this romantic vegetation. First, there was a soft look.

Then there was this kind of eerie landscape.

The water is about one and a half meter high. Hut houses built on the rice paddy border are now covered with climbing vines as the tenants no longer live there during the flood season.

It's not common place, but sometimes one can find such a beauty like this young girl deep in the countryside. She wears 'dien dien' flower in her hair. This kind of edible flower, very good for fish sour soup indeed, grows wild everywhere during the flood season. I love to eat them too.

Not only the empty canoe, floated still on the flooded front yard, illustrates vividly the flood situation, the drinking cat makes this picture a charming winner.

Ubiquitous dien dien flowers bloom during the flood season.

My romantic way of looking at the flood.

'Ca` na' trees grow wild along the canal banks in Dong Thap Muoi swamp. They only give abundant fruits during the flood season.

Kids love to pick them, especially girls.

Eaten these fruits with salt makes a very good snack in between meals.

These 'ca` na' fruits taste similar to olives. If rightfully pickled, they can rival their western counterparts. Used to be processed by the Chinese to make a delicious snack, now the recipe seems to be lost forever after years of war upheaval.

Toward the end of the rainy season around early November, this kind of flower called 'sua dua' starts to bloom. These are edible flowers, they make delicious soup ingredients especially when cooked with fish. Not like their 'dien dien' counterparts, which grow wild, these sua dua flowers (also called so dua) come from the planted trees of the same name.

For some reason unknown to me, people outside of the Mekong Delta don't eat these flowers, they just leave them faded and fallen to the ground. On my rides through those areas, I could pick as much as I wanted then stopped at a roadside restaurant, ordered a fish pot soup and have myself a wonderful time enjoying the edible flowers.

Starting as of end 2004 last year, this variety of red sua dua flower and tree appear here and there in the Mekong Delta. Now in 2005, it is a little more widely planted. To me, it tastes the same as the white variety although its red color turned dark purple when cooked might give you a quasi different taste. On my trip, these flowers were thoroughfully cleansed by a big rain, thus provided me with an excellent pot soup cooked with Viet basa fish.

Naturally decorated green bananas after a flash rain.












The flood doesn't come and go evenly among the Mekong provinces. The Dong Thap Muoi swamp bears the largest and longest flow. When the flood recedes, it looks mostly like this.

An Giang.

At first, I didn't quite know what kind of profession these people were exercising. I thought they had to do with fixing the pigs, since they used a similar horn but less noisy. Then I was explained that they were looking for junk to buy. Whatever they were doing, I did like the way the went from door to door in that romantic manner.

The French colonial presence can still be felt here deep in the heart of the Mekong Delta on the river island Gieng (also known as Ven). If I tell you this picture is taken in France, will you believe me?




I came back later to the river island church on Christmas's Eve 2005.










It was late afternoon, two technicians are putting their final touch for the upcoming celebration in the evening.

There are many Nativity displays set up on the church yard like this traditional one.










This display intrigues me. There's a child drawing of a female devil dragging her baby devil away saying 'let's get out of here quick!'. What do you think? To me it might have a socio-political undertone.

This display must be very traditional locally or with this family alone, since I haven't seen any similar display anywhere. If you look closely, you will see a bird in the cage, there are tropical fish swimming in the small rectangle pan, and best of all, there's a newborn goat underneath. I would give this display the top trophy if there is a contest.

Later on, the baby goat was given a chance to cruise with the kids on a hand cart, everybody looks happy including the father who pushes the cart.






This little girl will be performing in the Nativity show traditionally staged just before the Chritmas's Eve mass. With a set of wings attached to her, she will be angel among other angels while the boys will act as shepherds.



I had to talk to the church deacon to have the decorating lights turned on a little earlier so I could catch the end of the day sky background.

For this shot, I switch to the vertical composition to show the church height and its name.










The foreground palm branch is intentional to remind my visitors that this church is situated in a tropical country.

All of the shots of the decorated church would be incomplete, especially at the most celebrated occasion, so here is a long shot with the local people starting to gather for the year's biggest event.

Before I left, I had to take one final and most beautiful look at the legendary church.

Binh Duong.

Located in Bung, just 25 km north east of Saigon, the original roadside restaurant has been famous for more than half a century at this location. 'Bi' is the core of its dishes. It's a mixture of fine minced pork, pork rind, and roasted rice powder. Bi is then combined with other foods to make up delicious dishes.

Rolled with herbs in rice paper, it's 'bi cuon'. Just use your fingers to dip the tip of the roll first in the fish sauce mix and enjoy one of the most popular entres of Southern Vietnam.

Combined with 'banh beo' (soft rice cake) and mung bean paste , it's 'banh beo bi' eaten out of a plate.

Combined with 'bung' (soft rice noodle) and minced herbs, it's 'bi bung' eaten out of a bowl. Of course all of the above dishes have to go with 'nuoc mam' or fish sauce. Not just plain nuoc mam but it's a mixture of nuoc mam, water, sugar, lime juice, garlic paste, hot chili. This nuoc mam mixture, along with the bi, are the two best kept recipes that set this restaurant above the rest.
The lady who started the restaurant passed away a long time ago. She first made a living by selling this food at a stall inside Bung town market. Around 1948, she opened a roadside restaurant right at a curve of the Saigon-Thu Dau Mot highway and business picked up very good.
Now there are two My Lien restaurants instead of one. They are run by the two daughters aged around sixty and something, both restaurants are only a stone throw apart, both have the same menu and both serve the best bi you can find in Vietnam.

My Lien 1 Restaurant
Thu Dau Mot Road
An Thanh (Bung), Binh Duong
Phone: (065) 082-7144

My Lien 2 Restaurant
Thu Dau Mot Road
An Thanh (Bung), Binh Duong
Phone: (065) 082-7078

Long An.

On my way back to Saigon after a shooting trip, I found a beautiful sunset behind my back. I stopped and turned around to shoot a series of this end of the day panorama. This shot is the best among other so so ones. To repeat this shot, one has to live near the location to catch a similar sunset the next few days provided there won't be clouds or rain that change the scenery. Otherwise, it's impossible because the sun will move to either left or right of the highway's end and won't be at the same spot again until next year, I think.


'Che`' (Sweet liquid dessert). One wet and chilly night, after riding for hours in the rain I wanted something hot to keep me warm for another long ride back to Saigon. Coincidentally, I was not too far from my birthplace and I remembered that I used to eat various hot 'che' at a time like this. Too bad that it was hard to find what I wanted at the marketplace, since the people nowadays seem to consume only cold liquids even on chilly nights. Not to be discouraged easily, I then checked with my most reliable source: 'the honda om' men (motorbike taxi). I was told that there was an old woman selling hot bean che nearby.
My favorite che is always black bean che. Don't take this lightly because most of the time you will eat the wrong black bean che, it is the cheap variety of bean that they cook and claim it to be black bean. The authentic black beans are small in size and when cooked right will produce a thick black liquid with a pleasant aroma. There is a trick to its recipe. People, not knowing how to cook, will still have their black beans hard as rocks after hours of cooking. That's what I have heard. To make the beans tender, baking soda must be added when boiling the beans. This woman vendor told me that she cooked her beans four hours in the simmer mode, thus making her che tasted extremely delicious. One thing I don't like much about her che although it is excellent: to me, the black bean che should be pure with only sugar added. Here, she adds coconut milk that makes the che too creamy and also modifies the black bean aroma in a way.
This woman claims that she has been selling che for 38 years starting from 1967 when the fightings escaladed forcing her to move from the countryside to this small city of Tan An to eke out her living. In the beginning, she had to peddle her good all over the city until after the reunification of Vietnam in 1975, she then sell her che uniquely at the present location.