Vietnam’s Mekong Delta

Ah, Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.   Arguably one of the most photogenic regions in all of Asia.  For the majority of visitors to Vietnam, their experience of the Mekong Delta is marred by over commercialsed, mass produced tourism in the riverine town of My Tho where the day tripper is paraded through a series of saturated tourist features that bares no resemblance to the colour and wonderful spectacle of daily life that lies deeper in the Delta heartland.   Being one of the most densely populated regions on the planet it is hard to find solitude and moments of silence, even at 5am in the morning (!) but the commotion and activity is all part of the fabric of life down here.  The Mekong Delta produces the majority of Vietnam’s rice output, much of it is exported overseas, and with the country now being the largest producer of rice in the world you gain some indication of how vastly important the Delta is to Vietnam’s economy.

The entire Delta is a maze of waterways and river life.  Hop on a boat, anywhere, and you are heading for an adventure, guaranteed.

My visit took me to Can Tho, the largest town in the Delta, and my home base for two nights.  As with almost all towns in Vietnam, Can Tho is made up of a mixture of old French or Chinese shop house buildings and the unsightly, crass, lego brick buildings that bares no architectural or cultural cohesion whatsoever.  Much of the waterfront has changed since my first visit here in 1994.  It is still a charming and bustling place to be, particularly in the evening where the town takes on a wonderful old world Asia atmosphere with its street stalls and market places.  The new highway here has knocked off 2 hours driving time from Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho is now more accessible than ever.

My photographic focus here was to record life on the river and its famed floating markets.  This is one aspect of traditional life that has also changed, but fortunately, not completely diminished.  Whilst the tour groups will tend to concentrate their visit to Cai Rang market, the largest on the Mekong and, strategically, its most important, I headed out at 4.30am for Nga Bay and Phong Dien markets.  Nga Bay lies at the conflux of 7 tributaries of the Mekong and is approximately an hour’s drive from Can Tho.  Formerly known as Phung Hiep floating market, I was surprised to find this no longer exists, although the land market is still there and as colourful as ever.  The local authorities had closed the actual floating market (the Mekong’s most photogenic), moved it all on land, and pushed the vendors further up river to a rural location called Cho Noi.   Although a secondary road was being laid during my visit, the river market was only accessible by motorbike and this therefore meant there were no outside visitors whatsoever (to my delight!).

The floating markets are a wonderful connection to the communities of the Delta and, as with any market, are a site of commerce for fruit and vegetable produce, some bought wholesale, some on an individual basis.  At Cho Noi at Nga Bay, the market is a mixture of both motorised and sampan (small rowing boats) traffic although I found it interesting to note that many of the sampan’s today, as a sign of the times, also have a motor attached to the back of the boat which is put to use during long journeys on the open water but the owner reverting to rowing when navigating the market and the smaller tributaries.

The second market I photographed was Phong Dien, lying only 17kms from Can Tho.  Again, an early morning start is necessary to capture the beautiful light and to experience the river life at is most active.  By 8.30am I had already called it a day and headed back, only to see a few tourists start to arrive – no doubt missing much of what the Delta is all about.

In past times you could head by boat into the backwaters of the Delta and come across these bamboo bridges, called ‘monkey bridges’ due the balance of a monkey you would need to cross them.  As many of the tributaries are now connected via small concrete bridges there are few of these ‘monkey’ bridges’ still left standing.  A few local connections and a couple of motorbike rides later, I managed to locate one and, with luck on my side, photographed a local in typical Mekong Delta attire (called ‘ao ba ba’) crossing the bridge when the late afternoon light was seeping through the lush vegetation.  I love these moments! (note, see third and forth image below)

All in all a photographic venture to the Mekong Delta was long overdue but extremely rewarding, despite the short stay.  With so much to photograph in this part of the world I would have say the Delta is up there as one of my favourite places to visit.  Yes, it is changing, but the Delta is still the Delta, so long as you don’t mind a 4.30am wake up call!

As always it is hard to present these images in a blog format without the impact of a full scale photograph on a large screen.  The Visions of Indochina portfolio site provides this very focus and I will add the above images, plus others, to a new section that I will call ‘on assignment’.  I will endeavour to load these full screen shots over the next day or so.  Stay tuned.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 24th, 2011 at 5:59 pm. It is filed under Feature, Latest Images, Post Slider. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.