The Making of a Future

I witnessed hard work
I witnessed perseverance
... on the bones
I witnessed happiness
... in children's eye

Mekong River, January 2  2010

We departed from Can Tho Port with this boat. Unlike the other day, we weren't instructed to put on life jackets. I like that, honestly speaking, because wearing a life jacket limits my mobility to take pictures, although on the other I should appreciate the travel agency for preparing life jackets for all the passengers.

This is Can Tho Port where we departed on morning of January the 2nd.

Can you believe that the source of this brownish water is actually snow? It's the snow that fell from the Himalayans.

This is part of life in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. Get in the boat, buy some vegetables, and then a chit chat here and there... gossi:P Women, I think, are women, in any part of the world. Don't you think so?

One day, if God gives me the chance, I would like to roar the Mekong Rivers again, but in such a boat. It might cost more expensive, but I would get more opportunity to take pictures. I can have the boat to stop whenever I need to. And hopefully the sky at that time will have more blue inside it.

I bet some peddlers go into the river and buy stuffs in the floating market to sell in the city.

I reckon there are retailers in this floating market such as this watermelon seller. When we had returned and I posted these photos on my Facebook, Wiwik reminded me that the poles seen in the background of this photo is to indicate what the boat sells. If it is a watermelon vendor, then there will be a watermelon hung over the pole. That’s a very creative way to help people direct their boat to the vendors they need.

And then a small boat like this will buy some of the watermelons. Maybe they will bring them to the markets in the city.

In the background you can see that people merely live on the river. They eat, wash, and do their laundry on the river.

Cook, eat, wash, everything...

It's not only fruits and vegetables that you can buy in the floating market. You can buy breakfast, too!

A house-boat-wife?

We stopped by a village to see the making of rice noodle. About the making of rice noodle itself, I will put in another album.

A few houses before the house where rice noodle was made, there was a wedding party being prepared for the next day. It seemed to be the wedding season in Vietnam, because I saw many ornaments like this along the street back to HCMC. They also look all alike.

These are the kids I met in the neighborhood. They don't look rich. But they do look happy. That's the future of Vietnam... I guess.

You will be strong when you have a future to look forward to.