page13

We had a number of excursions during the cruise. One, as shown on the previous page, was to one of the markets along the river. Another favorite stop is the Huynh Thuy Le Ancient House.

Huynh Thuy Le's ancient house, the home of the main character in French writer Marguerite Duras's novel "The Lover" in Sa Dec town, Dong Thap province has been listed as one of Vietnam's most impressive destinations by the Vietnam Federation of UNESCO Associations.

The 119-year-old house owned by the Huynh Thuy family is famous for its unique architecture - a mixture of Southern Vietnamese, French and Chinese styles. The house witnessed the passionate love affair between Marguerite Duras - the well-known French writer who penned the famous novel L'Amant (The Lover) - and Huynh Thuy Le, a son of the Huynh Family. Source: http://en.vietnamplus.vn/\

For another excursion, Dave hired a taxi to take us to the flower market. This was a very large flower market that is popular with the locals. As usual, I can't resist the little ones.

There is also some industry along the Mekong. And there are villages on both sides of the river. There are dredging operations going on, grain loading facilities, and because there are very few bridges, there are a number of ferries to carry people and vehicles across the river.

For our next excursion, our captain had the Gecko Eyes I next to the shore so a gang plank could be set for disembarkation. It was a bit of a challenge for Granny but the crew was so helpful that she made it without any problem. We were going to see a temple that was a short? walk from where we landed. See below - Granny about to start the trek. On the way, we saw some men chiseling some wood making some sort of decorative pieces. It turns out the initial pattern is made using a computer driven "drills/router" and then the piece is finished by hand. Click HERE to see video.

It was a bit of a trek but we made it to the temple. Inside was a collection of Buddha statues. Look closely at the picture lower left and you will see that there is a series of panels on the walls. The picture below center is one of the panels showing Buddha about to cut his hair with a knife.