Its gotta be a sign!!!

Today, we ran out of lube for the bike chains. Shouldnt be a problem as we've only got 40 miles left to ride to Saigon tommorow, but Im taking it as a sign that this crazy journey is winding down. If we'de run out of Chammios Butter, we woulda had real problems.

Last night we made it to another bustling Mekong city; Ving Long. It was probably my favorite city in the delta so far, parlty because people seemed super friendly, but mostly because they have a CRAZY market. Ive probably already described the produce markets here--pretty much every variety of fruit, veggie, and herb you can imagine plus many more that I just have no idea what they are. The Ving Long market probably sprawled 5 or 6 city blocks, but its really hard to tell where these things begin and end--its more like a maze than an actual location. So besides the produce there were a couple huge warehouses full of hardware (anybody need a buncha tools/power tools...I bet they're dirt cheap), dry goods, bulk foods (mostly about a dozen different varieties of rice, but also many types of beans (which people must eat but you never see in a restaraunt or in streetfood), noodles, sauces--esp. fish sauce, dried seafood--many types of fish, squid, and shrimp), you name it. In addition to this, they had the normal meat market with pretty much all parts of the chicken, pig, and cow for sale (apparently, refrigeration is completely over-rated because all this is just sitting out on the counter in the 80- degree heat and 90% humidity--a lot of it still looks really tasty, though). As always, theres tons of fish for sale-most popular are catfish (big, small, a million differnt kinds), eels, and tilapia. All these freshwater fish are kept (mostly) alive in shallow tubs or on ice. From the ocean you can almost always find little makeral and bonito, along with squid and cuttlefish and shrimp. Shrimp (mostly big prawn type guys) are sometimes kept live, but all the other seafood is kept on ice. And theresa million other species, from freshwater minnows, to kingfish, to deep sea angler-type fish. Basically if it swims and you can catch it, its going in the pot.

But you can mostly find all this stuf at any Delta market; what really set Ving Long apart was what, for the lack of a better word, Ill call the "livestock market". Walking down a kinda dark alley off the main street, the first thing you hear is the squealing of pigs. They've got piglets by the basketfull and full grown hogs trussed up live and stuffed in wicker cages, just waiting to be thrown on the back of somebodys motor-scooter (no joke, see it all the time) and driven off to a new home or a BBQ. A little farther in, you see the poultry; chickens and ducks (with feet tied togeather to hobble them) sitting in rows on the ground. And then the clencher: the amphibs and reptiles. Actually, frogs and toads are nothing new; we've been seeing those in markets since Cambodia, but there were quite a lot of them here. Also, this was the first time weve seen turtles for sale; mostly just small-ish guys, look like the Red-Eared Sliders and pond turtles back home. But also some big ones that might be called Terrapins in the States--look like they spend most of their time in the water, long flippers and necks with long noses for breathing at the surface. Next to these are the snakes: Ive heard of folks in Vietnam eating snakes, but this was the firt time we've seen them for sale. I hear they use some parts for traditional medicine, or just cut out the heart and drop it in a shot of whiskey for a traditional treat! Several tanks, probably 3 ft long on each side and a foot deep were FULL of live snakes. All differnt kinds and sizes. Kinda wierded me out a little, I dont exactly know why. Cant imagine what you'ld need that many snakes for. It would be quite a scene if someone left the lid off one day--I remember very clearly from when I was a little kid that snakes can get out of damn near anything. All in all, quite an interesting and fun place. Maybe not the spot for a serious animal-rights activist (or maybe its where theyd be most useful...?).

Anyway, by 6am this morning we were stepping on another boat, only slightly more reliable-looking than the last one. We cruised though a whole mess of islands out in the Mekong and stopped to see some traditional (if now tourist-oriented) activities: bonzai garden (pretty cool), coconut candy making opperation (take coconut meat and palm sugar (kinda like our brown sugar) and heat them in a big bowl over a charcoal fire, mixing until it all carmelizes togeather--tasty!), and rice popping (take undried, unhusked rice and pop it like pop-corn in a huge skillet, then sift out the chaff and husks. tastes like puffed rice. good for cereal and rice crispy treats, which they make here with peanuts and pineapple, plus palm sugar to hold it all togeather).

After that we cruised across another huge arm of the Mekong. There are about nine main channels spread across the lower delta, each one about the width of the lower Columbia. We went through another floating market, cool but not as extensive as the first. Boat traffic is only a little less chaotic than driving on the road, but we eventually disimbarked (with our bikes) in the city of Cai Be--cutting about 10 miles off today's ride. We roade a fast 20 miles to the bustling city of My Tho and checked into a hotel overlooking the river--which is kinda a joke because the river is EVERYWHERE here. Think of Venice, but the whole of southern Vietnam. IM sure there are many more miles of river and cannal than road (and they prolly get just as much traffic). But it will be our last night on the river, an amazing, diverse, and powerful river we've followed since the very beggining of our journey. This river is so important to this region in so many ways, its quite amazing. Im looking forward to one more night of enjoying the river the way we've spent so many good nights on this trip; cold beer in hand, just watching the river slip on past.

If you sat through all that, congrads. Ill blather on more later.
Peace, and see you soon.
Miles