Mekong Delta

Cao Dai

Newimproved religion, mixing Taoism, Christianity, Confucianism and whatever else was in the larder – the swastika is for Buddha, however. Its inventor thought it would attract everybody, I think it makes everybody laugh. But it has followers, and this temple.

Some Mandarins and French Academicians count as Cao Dai saints. Victor Hugo is one of them.
On a more serious note, Pasteur is much honored in Vietnam. The Avenue Pasteur in Saigon, is one of the few streets to retain its French name. This is because the brand new Institute Pasteur started an effective program of immunization in French Indochina. Alexandre Yersin, an early member of the institute, actually remained in Vietnam after 1895 and died at Nha Trang there.

Neon and Christ among the orientals.

The left eye and the glyph are Cao Dai sacred symbols. The eye is the Zeitgeist, or Holy Spirit watching the world; the glyph no one can read.

The turtle and crane are traditional oriental symbols; they appear in Vietnam and China . During a terrible draught, the Gods sent a turtle to help humankind; but it was too slow, so the Gods sent a crane, and together they found water.

There are churches everywhere, leftovers from the French and a long history of missions to Vietnam.

Loofah, a vegetable sponge.

Small food factory in a delta village

Making candy
Concentrated palm juice poured into strips. Before that, it has been boiled for a while (with an ambient temperature of ninety degrees and 99% humidity), and some milk is added.

Making candy
The strips get cut in little squares and wrapped.

Various snakes (poisonous, of course) pickled in rice brandy. Supposed to be great for potency. They served us some, in small cups, for men only. The taste is pure alcohol; not telling about effects.

This snake is not venomous, so it didn't get pickled. But what fate awaits it – maybe will become a few elegant shoes or purses, maybe snake oil – who knows?

Making rice popcorn.
Here the grains are cracked.

Making rice popcorn.
The rice is mixed with hot sand, which does the actual popping. Then you have to sift the sand out. They use rice husks as fuel, very efficient. Eventually the pocorn grains get glued with a little caramel and servrd as square blocks.

Making rice popcorn

Making edible paper rice.
More or less like making pancakes, a very thin layer of rice paste is cooked over steam, then hung to dry. The rice husks serve as fuel.

Then we tasted some of their candy and tea, everybody sweating like Niagara.

These are vacation bungalows by the river – une saison en enfer.

A restaurant in some small village, with fried fish as their specialty. Very basic accomodation, and the airconditioner was off – no electricity today! But the food was remarkably good, especially the salads and soup, about which I usually don't enthuse.

These two probably escaped from the pot.

On the river

Water hyacinth
The floating leaves are not trash, they are living water hyacinth. These have spread all over the world; in Florida and Louisiana they are considered an invasive weed.

The bridge at Cẩn Thơ.
The vowels have nothing to do with a or o, both are schwas, one short , one long. As for tones ... forget it!

Water market
The boats display their merchandise on the mast.

Water melons.
Very sweet everywhere we got them.

This kid was selling drinks and fruit from a boat, and he managed a few English words, better than mama. Probably below school age, otherwise would be in school. When he finished, he shot us with his fingers – kid fun, love for Americans? BTW, we were the only Americans on the boat, everybody else Australians, Kiwis and some British.