Tân Châu, Vietnam

This town is on the border between Vietnam and Cambodia. It is known for producing high quality silks. They produce a special black silk called “Heavenly Beauty” which is dyed with locally grown mulberries. Tân Châu means “New City” in English.

We took a Sampan boat from the ship to Evergreen Island, just off the coast of Tân Châu. Since it is winter here the water levels are low. During August the island floods. The water levels increase to the point that many of the houses on stilts almost will look like they are floating. The island is home to many farmers raising bananas, tomatoes, mangos, pumpkins, squash, eggplant, cucumbers just to name a few.

Mr. No. 5, who lives on the island, opens his house to Viking guests. He is named that because he is the 4th child in his family (1 is not counted). He did not speak English, but told his story through our guide. He fought in the Vietnam war for South Vietnam (our ally). We had a veteran in our tour group and Mr. No 5 wanted to shake his hand and he gave him a big hug. It was quite touching. After the war Mr. No. 5 had to go through what they called brainwashing. Then they kept tabs on his whereabouts. He has a simple home and is very proud of what he has built. His wife keeps to the kitchen in the old cultural ways.

Floating fish farms produce a large amount of fish. The one we visited begins with a purchase of 270,000 small tilapia for one raft. Over the next 7 months they grow the fish by feeding them 20- 25 kg bags of feed a day. They must check the cages by diving to make sure there are not any holes and fixing them if there are any. It is a stinky business, but pretty lucrative if the market price remains high.

The rickshaw was invented in Japan in 1869. Bicycles improved this invention by converting the rickshaw to a three wheeled bicycle taxi called a “Cyclos”. Today we took a Cyclos ride through the streets of Tân Châu. The people there thought it was funny to see a bunch of tourists on the Cyclos. They took our pictures and waved to us.