Today we all had the delight of waking up on the Mekong River for the first time on our expedition. Some of us were lucky enough to be up and had the first of many beautiful sunrises for which the Mekong is famous. For those that were catching up on some sleep, there will be plenty more beautiful “Mekong sunrises” to come!

It wasn’t long after we had a scrumptious breakfast that we were off to visit Cai Be. On our way in, we saw the timeless process of people selling fruit on the water, advertising their sales by hanging it high from a large pole from the front of their boats. Our guides explained that although it looked very different from business operators we may have been used to, it had a lot of similarities. The fruit on the pole was simply the “advertising,” the people in the larger boats were the middle men who had purchased their products from the farmers, and the people pulling up in the smaller boats were the “drive-through” customers. It was great to see the timeless process happen and was a delight for the photographers.

As always, the journey into the location was half of the fun, but it was fantastic to get to see a home workshop and see how rice paper, pop rice, and coco candies are made traditionally. We were able to get up-close and personal with the local people making these products as they had for generations and learn about the process itself again from our guides, some of us didn’t mind “sampling” the end products as well.

Just before lunch we were able to have a fantastic photography presentation from Jennifer, it was both entertaining and informative, where we all got some great tips for our upcoming trip. 

In the afternoon we were able to go on another excursion to Binh Thanh Island. It was a very intimate experience, with the feeling that we had been given a real glimpse in to these friendly peoples’ lives. It was great to see rattan mats being made by hand, and we were able to sit down with some of the local elders and discuss recent and historical issues for the island community.

A great day and a great way to start the voyage aboard Jahan!