Vietnam 15

Can Tho and the Delta

On occasion, I get away from the office on a work trip. Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit several provinces in the Mekong Delta with a delegation from the Department of the Interior (photos here). Three days of long drives, but a great opportunity to see a unique part of the country.

To get to Can Tho in the heart of the Delta, we drove south from Ho Chi Minh City for about 4 hours. It’s not that far as the crow flies, but as the van drives (along narrow and overcrowded roads), it’s much further. Plus, the scenery is largely ugly for much of the first three hours. Though you fairly quickly enter the “Mekong Delta,” you remain on VN 1, the main road. Like most developing countries, the Vietnamese built up all around the road and instead of vistas of paddy field and palm trees, you get shophouses, banks, food stalls, and, increasingly, industrial zones. Built in wetlands or in what was prime rice growing areas, these zones were created by local governments wishing to cash in on the export boom. Unfortunately, many are undersubscribed, pollute horribly, and disrupt the natural rhythms of the Delta. And it is only getting worse. Those who frequently drive south (the new airport in Can Tho is not yet operational) note dramatic changes in the landscape as more buildings go up and more farmland disappears.

Still, as we drove along, I noticed a difference from Ho Chi Minh City. We traveled over more and more canals as the land grew more marshy. We sped through a small town, in which over 1/3 of Vietnam’s rice exports pass through every year. The sun began to set, softening the tones of the road and we passed schoolgirls clad in ao dais and wearing floppy, floral hats pedaling their bikes along the side of the road. A few strands of fruit trees peaked through the buildings. When I rolled down the window, the heat and humidity reminded that this was not chilly, fall Hanoi. I was once again in the tropics.

To reach Can Tho, we passed over two of the seven arms of the Mekong (known in Vietnamese as the Nine Dragons, though two of them, evidently, have dried up). The first is traversed by a modern suspension bridge, while the second, just north of town, is still crossed by ferry. A section of the still-under-construction Japanese-supported bridge collapsed last year, killing 50 people, and delaying completion until 2010. The lines for the ferry can last for kilometers, adding hours to the drive. Fortunately, our hosts were well connected and we cut to the front of the line, just in time to cross as the sunset, with the Mekong’s rivers disappearing into the haze as distant lightning illuminated far off thunderheads.

Can Tho is a pleasant city. As the main metropolis in the Mekong Delta, this city of about 1 million people (I’ve heard widely variant population numbers, but people agree it is Vietnam’s fifth most populous city), is the jumping off point for trips into the Delta itself. Therefore, it hosts a surprisingly large number of tourists, most of which, it seemed, were staying at my hotel, the Victoria Can Tho. An elegant, 19th century hotel, it was packed with middle-aged Germans, French, and Israelis, as were many of the city’s restaurants. As an expat myself, I can hardly complain. But, still . . . I like to pretend sometimes that I’m a real adventurer. 60 year old hausfraus kibitzing over the black forest ham on the buffet tend to deflate that image. Anyhow, the waterways still serve as the region’s main connectors and boats can take you wherever you want. I ventured into the city by boat taxi. Every town has a floating market, where farmers bring produce, fish, and meat to sell and look over processed goods for purchase. However, you’ve got to get there soon after sun up to see them in action.

I ventured to Can Tho to take part in the opening ceremony for a USG supported climate change institute at Can Tho University. With 32,000 students, Can Tho U. is almost as large as a Big Ten school. It’s a safe bet that its endowment is much smaller, though the campus boasts a beautiful, modern library (funded by a US philanthropist) and several new buildings. The rector told me that it grants degrees in 114 fields and it specializes in marine and agricultural sciences.

The day after the ceremony, we visited Soc Trang and Bac Lieu provinces in the far south. These provinces have large Chinese and Khmer minorities and we passed numerous Khmer temples, which appear much like Buddhist temples from Thailand. Indeed, like Thailand, the Khmer culture looks back to India for its early influences, unlike Vietnam, which looks north to China. Many signs were in Khmer and I noted a growing number of people with strong Cambodian features. At the same time, the area also boasted many Chinese-style temples and the doorways of many houses were festooned with banners in Chinese.

Inland, most of the locals farm rice and we visited one small landholder, who showed off his 6 hectare farm, from which he derived a net income each year of about $1,200. Closer to the sea, most people turn to aquaculture, particularly shrimp farming. We stopped by one such small farm to check out the owner’s ponds. From a small pond, he can raise about 1.5 tons of shrimp each year, the prawns literally covering the entire bottom of the man-made habitat. Still, as the population of this part of the Delta has increased, it has created new stresses on the environment as mangrove swamps and wetlands are turned into farmland. Salinization, lack of storm cover, and other environmental problems threaten this area, the remaining wildlife, and the livelihoods of its locals. Climate change will exacerbate this process, and this has finally gotten the Government of Vietnam’s attention. There is hope, but climate change adaptation is going to be tough for a country so desperate to maintain economic growth.