Pandaw in Vietnam

The view from our Saigon window told a story. Most buildings were long and narrow (less than 3 metres wide) and in some case 4 or 5 floors high. Their natural growth upward is for each generation (youngens at the top). The width is due to taxes based on street frontage with a steep rise in tax over 3 metres. Certainly an unusual way to drive planning and streetscapes. 

After a 1 hour 35 minute and 25 second drive (according to our guide’s prediction) we were boarding Pandaw Mekong. This is the largest Pandaw in the fleet. We boarded at an industrial berth in the city of My Tho.

And quickly got the hang of the view from the sun deck.

Which included a bar (cocktails at any hour) and a pool table (that only the guides seemed to use).

Martin discovered that the funnel was in fact a broom cupboard and set about earning his cocktails until he realised they were free.

The shape of the Pandaws is unique and although all 12 in the fleet are different they are certainly from the same stable (see the November 2012 blog on Irrawaddy)

At night the lights along the corridor were warming (nothing to do with the heat) and with an almost full moon it had a romantic feel to our first night).

This feeling was enhanced by the evening movie called The Lovers which was set in Saigon and San Dec. It is based on a real life romance between Marguerite Duras and a rich Chinese man called Huynh Thuy. It is well written with great cinematography and is also very hot (despite the air conditioning).

Apparently the real Marguerite suggested the movie was a little warmer than reality but was over-ruled as the Director certainly knew what would have most marketing appeal.

The film was largely made in the actual houses of the real life drama. We visited Huynh’s father’s house in Sa Dec where he spent much of his time smoking opium.

The Mekong is a little different to our Irrawaddy experience. Everywhere you look there is activity. This was one of a dozen or so grabs that were excavating the river at our first overnight stop. Barges are loaded until the cabin floor becomes awash. As a result captains often operate their vessels sitting on the roof.

Even small boats have little freeboard.

Along the lower Mekong, coconut and rice are major crops. Everything gets used and one of our first trips was around a village specialising in these two items. The first was using coconut by removing and finely chopping the flesh and then cooking this down into a fudge. The fire used the shell as its heat source.

The thickened mix was then left to cool, placed into strips on a specially designed board, cut into squares and then packaged in rice paper. It may be labour intensive but tasted great.

Meanwhile rice was broken down and turned into a pretty potent drop. However, it is a little tasteless so

steeping it for a bit of time with some protein is the answer and abracadabra you have snake wine

As it had been 12 hours since our last cocktail Martin was keen to give this a go. He survived so Mike and I also participated. The flavour was not particularly strong but the alcohol content was. I had a bit of a cold developing and this anesthetised the throat nicely so the cough was not an issue for a few hours.

We then moved onto making rice paper. It is spread like a pancake, steamed briefly and then using a flat stick removed to a hanging basket. In all it takes less than a minute. Yours truly volunteered to have a go. Fortunately I do not have a picture of this debacle but rice block may have been a more appropriate description of the result.

We were reliably informed that this cobra was a pet and not for the wine.

Another product was popped rice. Here sand is used (repeatedly) so as to get a high temperature (using rice husks as fuel) the rice added (or noodles) and it then proceeds to pop. After a few seconds the content is removed to a sieve where the sand is shaken back into the wok and the popped rice is ready for coating.

Here mulberry was heated,

the rice added and stirred vigorously, then spread on the board (just visible in the foreground) where it was cut into rectangles.

The ladies then proceeded to wrap up the product which also tasted great. Altogether this was quite a sophisticated operation and we noticed a Mercedes parked next door and wondered whether this was the proprietors house.

The Pandaw is quite large and we often anchored and were taken off by a variety of boats. This one took us to a floating market.

Some care in manoeuvring was needed when these boats loaded with rice husks passed by. Standing on the cabin roof was the only way to see ahead.

Most of the larger boats are live aboard vessels where the loo is also a convenient spot to do the washing. Not too much privacy with this thunderbox.

As we went round the market we did see one enterprising fisherman with a hand held electric net scooping out small fish.

One of the less comfortable journeys was in a trishaw around a village called Chau Doc. OK for 15 minutes but any longer and walking would have been preferable (and not a lot slower). Although gears were a pleasant surprise they did slip repeatedly and gave my driver a few jolts. As a result although we started at the head of the line we came in last.

Later in the day we had a speed boat trip to a Catfish farm.

Here the houses have a 40 x 25 metre cage underneath them which is about 5 metres deep. They take some 200,000 fingerlings and then fatten them up over almost a 12 month period. They certainly get excited when some food is thrown into the pen.

Our final trip before we crossed the boarder was a small Moslem village.

The water is receding at this time of the year so a walkway was provided. It was only a small village with some 200 inhabitants who specialised in weaving. We did seem to meet the youngest

through to the oldest. A real pair of characters.