Day Nine,

up for breakfast,

a busy day ahead,

so much to chose from,

a light breakfast today,

well OK a couple of eggs to go with the bacon,

we were soon on the tenders to take us ashore, under the watchful eyes of one of the local boat crew,

leaving the Jahan, 

we soon made it to shore,

to Tan Chau,

a remote, 

but bustling riverside town where huge numbers of fish are farmed for export,

I had to feel sorry for my cyclo driver, he looked, well a bit frail considering he was going to have to heave my 78 or so kilos plus himself and the bike as well into town,

no problems for Diana and her driver, she was off like an unguided missile,

one of the many ladies selling small birds you can buy to release and gain merit,

the towns sign in Vietnamese,

I took a few pictures along the way as we went, this one of a man drying coconuts by the roadside,

a mobile fruit seller,

it is the same here as in Thailand, 

load your produce on a wheeled barrow and walk to town to sell your goods,

we made our way into town,

passing one of the local chandlery stores, 

again similar to Thailand when there is a party a covered area with tables and chairs is placed in the road outside your home,

there were of course many shops selling local handicrafts,

like a snake we weave our way along the way around the village,

here is a new one for us, a motorcycle that is also a stall, the goods on the back seat with a sun/rain umbrella attached to the bike,

we have arrived, 

at the local market,

so it is dismount,

and start to have a look around,

before going into the covered area I noticed this electric bike, made in China,

and a seller with lots of winkles, I have tried these before, although the ones we eat in the UK are from the sea, these are freshwater ones,

I was intrigued by this stall,

selling crabs,

in this bowl just the easy to eat claws,

also outside a number of mobile fresh fruit and vegetable sellers,

inside we went,

as with most markets in the Far East,

many of the items for sale are live, no expensive refrigeration or blocks of ice to pay for,

but naturally dead fish in this section are also available,

the fish section was huge,

but then we are on the Mekong river that has huge resources,

across to the fruit and vegetable section,

water-lily like flowers bundled,

fresh eggs,

I have never seen these before, it looks like they have been kept buried in soot or very dark soil, I have found out that they are fresh eggs when buried, but for how long I do not know,

live chickens,

and ducks are everywhere,

one thing that did surprise me,

was how many cut flowers were for sale,

there were so many varieties on offer,

into the fruit section,

some more water-lily like flowers or I should say stems,

then some fruits I had never seen before,

this one about 9" or so long, but I have been told they are called soursop, in the Philippines,

and these,

a little bigger than a large grapefruit, the insides are used to colour food stuffs like friary cakes, Diana mentioned that they have these in the Philippines but are much smaller,

it is almost an art form in itself,

to see how much you can load onto a motorcycle or tricycle,

we made our way outside, 

where there was the equivalent of a mobile tropical fish store on the pavement,

this chicken is not for eating, it is a fighting cock,

the second half of our group arrives,

by now the top of my head was getting quite sunburnt, so a hat was needed,

the starting price was ₫42,000 dong, ($1.87),

using my finely honed bargaining skills I had picked up in Thailand over the past 30 years the price ended up at ₫42,000, ($1.87), well I tried, I still remember the old saying,' it is better to try and fail, than to fail to try',

moving on, I meet up with Diana,

and made our way with the group past the market,

to the waiting water taxis,

we were off on a little excursion,

passing one of the local cross river ferries,

and sand unloading bays,

and these,

or at least one of them,

is what we are going to visit, a commercial fish farm, rearing fish for the table,

but before we landed this boat caught my attention,

it seemed so low in the water,

that even the slightest wave form another vessel might swamp it,

another vessel with a lot more free board went past,

just as we arrived at the fish farm, each of the pontoons are 10 X 20 metres in size with the nets under them going down 7 meters or so,

our guide Tri gave us a description of how the fish are raised, food for the fish is the main cost, the machine behind him produces fish food from rice husks and fish by-product, it is boiled and mixed for 4 hours, then extruded and dried,

at feeding times, once or twice a day the dried food is placed in this shredder, the conveyor belt then moves the granulated food into the stock pools,

hardly a fish in sight,

until you throw a handful of fish food into the net, then the water almost seems to boil, these are red-tailed tinfoil barbs, (Barbonymus altus, previously Barbus altus), they are easy to grow but not as popular as the fish in the next pontoon as they have many small fine bones,

and here we are in the next pontoon,

again our guide gave a us a talk on these fish,

the ones we are about to see we have eaten many times, they are the Vietnamese catfish, (Pangasius bocourti or sometimes hypophthalmus), sold in Thailand as dory, in other countries as river cobbler, cobbler, striper or panga, locally known here as basa,

so how many fish are in this one pontoon?

the trick to counting them is to speed count, you count the eyes and dived by 2, and the answer is? 120,000 fish in this one pontoon, the fish are sold when they reach 1 to 1.5 kilos, the fish will grow up to nearly 45 kilos, but after 1.5 kilos the fat content in the fish goes up too much, so it is then the fish are readied for the International and local markets, the brood stock fish are spawned 3 times a year, so there is a steady production of filleted fish,

back to the boat for lunch,

a beautifully crated melon,

today's special pasta,

plus a selection of salads,

including a beetroot based one, it seems that beetroot is becoming a favourite as we have seen it featured in a few cooking programs on television that we have both watched,

Diana looking at the heated trays,

I made my choice,

now which cake for dessert?

we made our way down stream,

passing many,

loaded sand barges going in both directions,

they seem so low in the water,

but up and down river they go 24 - 7, but I have a feeling that the blue part of this barge was a latter add-on to increase the load,

one of the many sand/gravel docks that are dotted along the river,

whilst Diana catches a few ZZZZZZs,

I carried on taking pictures,

of various industries,

along the riverside,

as we made our way,

to our next stop,

the village My An Hung,

it is a village that primarily grows vegetables,

we make our way carefully around the edge of the field,

as we leave the Jahan,

and walk past a banana plantation,

our guide explains that this is a two crop operation, Chinese cabbage is the main crop, but between the plants a second crop of peppers is grown, it has been found that these two plants do not have a detrimental effect on each other when it comes to growing them,

we are going to meet the Lam family, but first an introduction to village life,

a water closet,

and a demonstration of how to use the WC,

we were greeted with a selection of locally produced fruits being laid out for latter,

we were invited to look around the house,

to see how the family lived,

inside we were introduced to some of the family,

who were going to sing and play for us,

the first instrument is a single string, the notes are played by using a handle to tighten or loosen the string,

next a guitar with a vocal accompaniment,

our guide thanked the home owners for us,

then outside for a walk,

we passed these two ladies planting seeds,

the seeds were minute chrysanthemum seeds,

each seed individually planted, back breaking work,

a locally made watering can made from a use cooking oil tin,

we were all fascinated by the planting,

each seed planted it its own container of a round leaf in the soil,

then to the bridge,

that the locals use every day, but first a word of caution,

the hand rail is for show only, the plank in the middle section bounced up and down alarmingly when a small child ran across it, and where exactly were the 4 WCs we saw earlier?

this was as far as I wobbled, it was way too high and shaky for me,

much to the amusement of the locals on the other side,

and the flower girls,

making our way back to the house,

I noticed this little chap,

a type of ladybird I think,

then the fresh fruit tasting,

the one that everyone wanted to try as it was so well known, the durian,

so it was eyes down and tuck in,

I wandered off and found a long necked turtle,

I am sure it was looking at me,

then a show began, this is only the second time this young lady has performed in public,

we gathered round,


 to watch,

a dazzling show,

of balance,

skill,

and dexterity,

as she went through her moves,

using her fan to aid in making stylised kung-fu moves,

a great show,

then it was the turn of some of the local lads,

for the dragon dance,

to the accompaniment of drums and cymbals the show began,

the masked figure,

being chased by the dragoon,

the youngsters put on a terrific show,

as they leapt from table to table,

sometimes looking like they might miss the table,

which brought cries from us all,

caught in mid air, so close to disaster,

but it all ended well,

with the masked figure being chased around the show area,

one last time,

the noise of drums and cymbals,

had brought some of the other villagers out to look at the show,

we made our way back to the Jahan, just before the rain started,

and moved into midstream,

low clouds looked ominous,

but it was not a problem on board, after a shower and a change of clothes the storm covers were down in the bar area, 

so cocktails,

for two,

even though the storm covers were down it was a little blowy inside,

after drinks we were downstairs to the dinning room,

where we had a few choices to make,

I had made mine!

I really could not decide on the main course, they all looked so nice, but I went for the beef as did Diana,

Diana's dessert,

we went back to our cabin after the meal,

and found we had been left two chocolates,

what a nice touch,

we sat on the balcony playing cribbage until it was time for bed.