The Mighty Mekong

Happy International Women’s Day! Apparently it’s a big deal here, as it should be everywhere.

We were out of our hotel pretty early this morning and were shuttled to the Sofitel Hotel to meet others on our upcoming Mekong Cruise. There we boarded a coach for our trip to the river.

But, before that, we made two stops, first at a lacquer factory - beautiful goods at beautiful prices.

The second stop was in Saigon’s China Town. Here we did a walk about. Gotta love the electrical wire mishmash!

Then we hit the highway to the Delta . All along the way we were treated to scenery of rice paddies with graveyards regularly dotting the fields.

We got to the Mekong Prestige ll shortly after 2:00 and were sent straight to lunch. We already know that the food will not be either shabby nor insignificant on this cruise. We were sent to stateroom 111 on the water level and no sooner did we open our suitcases than the boat headed up the Mekong. This is one seriously busy waterway.

Of course, we were obliged to do the safety drill with lifejackets - always so stylish.

Once the boat was well under way , the four of us retired to the lounge for a game of cards. We are already finding the Mekong traffic very entertaining, with a constant cast of different boats passing our way. Suddenly at around 6:00, the boat stopped. I guess we don’t travel on the Mekong at night. In fact, we had already reached tomorrow’s destination. Dinner tonight was good - not the quality of last night or MAM, but tasty nevertheless. After dinner entertainment was a Mekong cultural troupe.

It would be worth noting that this is my first post from the Mekong and so far so good.