Another early start but having turned the lights out at 9:35pm last night and not being kept awake by the thunderstorms I was feeling a little fresher.

Once again we were herded cattle like onto a bus and shepherded to the boat dock where were boarded a boat – although this time it was spitting rather than pouring with rain – and taken to a Cham village.

The Cham people are a minority group living in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. They speak their own language and are considered decedents of the kingdom of Champa (more info here). The Vietnamese Cham’s live mainly in the Mekong Delta region and form the majority of the Muslim population of Vietnam. More information on the Cham people can be found here.

On the way to the Cham village we passed a floating village. It really did look much like a normal village just on the water. The houses were arranged in streets with verandas and washing line hanging outside. A dog stood on the porch of one house and I even spotted a floating petrol station!

The Cham village was like many other ethnic minority villages I have seen, although getting to it was interesting. Our boat docked on a jetty and we had to walk the rest of the way in – the only problem being parts of the jetty were completely submerged in water. Then once the wooden jetty ended we had to carefully pick our way along some very slippery mud before finally making it onto the more grassy stable land of the village.

The river side of the village was comprised entirely of stilt houses and was set up with souvenir shops for the passing tourists. We walked through the village onto a road and up to a mosque that sat, along with everything else on that side of the road, at ground level.

Coming back from the Cham village we stopped at the floating village for a look at a floating fish farm. This wasn’t as interesting as it sounded. We got off the boats and walked into a large floating house. The guide lifted the floor of the house to reveal the fish farm beneath. Initially there didn’t appear to be many fish around but the minute some food was chucked in a feeding frenzy ensued. The fish went crazy splashing and until someone bravely put their hand into the water and scaring them away!

From the floating fish farm we were taken back to the boat dock once again and boarded the bus back to Saigon. Again we stopped at the Crocodile farm, the rain having stopped by now we got a better look around and I got some decent pictures of the Crocs.

The we sat back and relaxed all the way back to Saigon only being aroused when our guide broke into a very bad rendition of a Vietnamese song as we drove into the city.

That’s it from the Mekong Delta and Saigon. Hopefully there will be more to come on Vietnam very soon.

* Posted by j150vsc on 08/09/2007.