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From what we were able to see during our short stay on Evergreen Island, life was fairly simple, yet very well organized. Even the little chicks looked happy and healthy. ;o) Things seemed to grow so well on the island, making lots of resources for human use. Chopping up stick to be stacked for drying and later to be used in cook fires may seem to be a mundane job, but I’m sure it comes with a large measure of personal satisfaction.

There wear quite a few children, and they were very well behaved, and the older ones took good care of the smaller children.

Here, the banana trees that grew in the front yard of this home bore huge bunches of fruit. I recall the banana trees which are used as decorative vegetation in California homes, that they bore only the most minuscule fruit, if any at all. I never saw a banana there that you could peel and eat. Perhaps they were a fruitless variety. I know you can have a “fruitless” mulberry tree, and that certainly seems rather pointless. ;o) The little boy was very cute, and totally unafraid of Tin.

This man showed a remarkable amount of pride in his home. And no wonder, as it was spotless. The raised sleeping platform was shiny and beautifully finished wood. The hard wood furniture was beautifully carved and finished.

Of course there was a television. Everything was very neatly arranged, and there was lots of bright colors.

The kitchen was simple, yet delicious dishes could easily be prepared there. I don’t think I could squat like that though.

Have you ever seen children look so casual? Life on the island seems to agree with everyone there.

It’s time for us to leave the Evergreen Island, and head for the fish farms. The small boats are there for the islanders . . .

. . . and the larger barge type boats tied up at the island will carry their produce to factories along the river for processing.

The fish farms are floating platforms with millions of fish held captive in the under water pens. The mounds of fish food are thrown into the opening, and the noise is amazing as thousands of mouths are gaping open to catch a pellet of food, and the water becomes a froth of activity.

The folks on the fish farms haven’t overlooked the opportunity to supplement their income by catering to the tourist trade.

There was a veritable department store look with various items hanging on the walls and on tables and literally everywhere.

They were very talented in the paper crafts. You open what looks like a book, and an amazing 3D paper image appears.

We are back on board our water taxi and heading for a pier, and the place where we will hook up with the rickshaw boys for a tour of the city of Tan Chau.

At first it appeared a little chaotic, but the guy with his arm raised and a radio in his hand was very definitely in charge.

We each got directed to a rickshaw, and before you knew it, you were on your way for a very interesting ride.

Pete couldn’t resist a selfie that captured the train of rickshaws following from behind.

I took a photo of my Blue Footed Booby tennis shoes. I get some strange comments about them. ;o) The little guys mom is directing his attention to these strange creatures who have come in rickshaws. I liked the fiberglass bear hugging the trash bin. It would certainly be a draw to kids when teaching them to help maintain a clean town.

The guy with the fruit cart is keeping cool in the shade of a tree. One thing I noticed was that there were not many people standing idle. Everyone seemed to be occupied in some fashion or another. It all seemed pretty harmonious.

A new home is being built and we will soon be seeing the factory where those bricks are made. Our train of rickshaws seemed to go on for miles. There were over 40 of us after all.

We had a wonderful surprise at dinner that night. New Zealand rack of lamb. Pete and I were in heaven as we both love lamb.

We cast off from Tan Chau at around noon, and the trip to Sa Dec would take us about 5 hours. The afternoon was taken up with a presentation on Vietnamese Wedding Culture, and our Hotel Manager Jan giving us a presentation on where to go next, with a world tour to discover other Viking destinations. This cruise, the Magnificent Mekong, is our 5th Viking trip. One might conclude that we like this type of vacation. The fact that your hotel travels along with you, and you get to see a lot of the country you are visiting, makes for a very nice vacation. However, the first half of this two week trip did consist of a number of hotel stays, but since we were staying in Sofitel hotels, we had no complaints. They were all pretty extraordinary.

In the next chapter we’ll take a Sampan Boat Excursion, and the Sa Dec market tour.