Have you got any chance to be in South-West Vietnam, a vast of expanse of water with traditional tune, the Vong Co? Sometimes, it is just too hard to consider it all. The place where you get some fresh air within a limited amount of weekend. The best way to expand your adventure is through the built-in highways to the first Vinh Long province after taking 03-hour from HoChiMinh city (Saigon).
Over time and with enough at Bo Gon confluence located in Vinh Long, you could float on water down the Co Chien river a little bit 05 minutes at intervals, instantly a small island An Binh (A Peace in Mind island) appeared for what you see. By spending leisure time through this wild, untamed island, breathing air that was fresh and clean, you would have more mental energy to appreciate all things that Nature has arranged.
Walking into a well-timed area along with it, Vinh Sang made travellers from afar become addicted its specialties from ostrich meat such as ostrich steak, Vietnamese noodle “Pho” with ostrich, boiled ostrich eggs, braised crocodile legs with herb, Vietnamese crocodile salad, etc. So interesting it was to be the replete with varied meals, took places in the nature right in the floating stilt houses beneath the flow of water fresh, pure and the perfume of lotuses and nenuphars pervaded the air.
With a flock of lanky ostriches, you could firstly select to ride full speed on ostrich’s back to become a pioneer people instead of a cowboy, a cowgirl in the American wild West. Yet many travellers felt uncomfortable riding because the image of a bull-rider or horse-rider ws too familiar rather than faced it with courage. Like difficulty is the mother of success, I am sure you cannot go away empty-handed. Being a little scary at second to enjoy the fun of fishing “Crocodile”, a kind of reptile “Cold-blooded” without the need of a licence, a host of them looked vague and insensible staying out in the sun under the knee-deep water. Each one was twice as long as the small boat and just as wide, and kept silent all the time. Throwing food scraps or fish carcasses into the pool, that attracted crocs, that was like fast-food for them going to get a shock with a big mouth full of shiny teeth as sharp as a razor. The thrill of believing you won when the fatal crocodile attack made you paralyzed with fear. There was nothing that put a trembling on your face faster than catching a croc then.
The light breeze from the South blew through “Ao ba ba”, a kind of easy-to-use traditional suit, and caressed our skin and stayed with us in the small sampan. I liked to spend a couple of hours among the travellers who kept on going along a vista of untrammelled dikes at the end of a garden of trees, finding plentiful supplies of fresh fruit and vegetables full of sweet smelling was straggled some thatched houses offering a picturesque and lovely sight. It seemed you find heavenly blessing. If you were trying to bail out water to catch fishes and wanted reap the fruit of your labor … then this trip was for you. Bailers were tied to a piece of rope and lowered into the water. At least two persons were used for removing water which had still remained into the drainage brook. Meanwhile, others were ready to plunge in for joy with fishing-baskets. They snatched some struggling “Ca Loc” violently, a kind of ophiocephalous fish – Snakehead alive, lifted out the water throwing together to the ground. The moment we broke into a laugh, a damp with sweat, full of mud fining a perennial source of inspiration in rice field, a place on the bank under the shade of some green trees, and in the simple idyllic life of the childhood and the tillers of the soil.
Then we sat to prepare our meal. A few of young boys gathered dry sticks, and I made the fire, while others were unpacking the baskets. The impaled fish was then lifted up over the fire or covered up it with clay to be frilled. When all were ready, everyone sat round on the grass, and had the grand meal of roast fish and girdle cake, followed by chilli, ginger, carambola fruit with more varied vegetables nearby and fish sauce to finish up with a roll of mixture. In addition to how muddy taste it was, a cup of rice alcohol was designed to make tipsy. When wine is in, wit is out! A pickled boy glanced at a country girl who was peeping and turning pink with confusion. Let’s hear him in these two funny lines of verse: “One who bottom up! And all the fire is off. Who feel horny without you?” This was received with applause to cheer him to the echo. Always worth a try!
The Sun was going down and the sunset promised to be glorious. It was cool and quiet around us. The little waves splashing regularly blending the most wonderful piece of the Vong Co (literally, nostalgia for the past) through the sweet voices of the cast we had ever heard, much appreciated by the audience. To go from Saigon to remote countryside An Binh island, where our floating hotel was on the side of the Co Chien river, we seemed to forget all the worries of this fast-paced world, feeling a thorough appreciation of the beauties of nature.
