This Vietnamese woman was cooking a meal at a bus station in Chau Doc, in the Mekong Delta. When I asked if I could take her photograph she consented, and then, as she held up her half-peeled boiled egg, she broke out in a type of laughter so common in rural places throughout Southeast Asia.
The resiliency of the Vietnamese people residing in the Mekong Delta is exemplified by their eccentric dietary selections, readily available at the local market.
Can Tho is the main city of the Mekong Delta. It is the transportation center for the region, as it is connected to the other towns of the Delta by an extensive system of rivers and canals.
A late afternoon scene in Chau Doc, a Vietnamese town in the Mekong Delta
One morning in the Vietnamese town of Chau Doc, located near the Cambodian border, I rented a motorbike so that I could spend a day leisurely puttering past hamlets and fields in the surrounding countryside. When I came upon these kids -- they had just spent the day in the fields with their parents and were now on their way home -- we smiled and laughed at the enjoyable sight we were to each other...something we never could have done had we been rushing by in automobiles.
This young girl living in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam followed us around with a big grin!
While traveling around the Mekong Delta floating markets, you saw whole families living on old wooden boats. The kids were also a key part of the market - this one happened to be shy - but curious!
Isleton Joe's is located in the small Sacramento Delta town of Isleton. (Isleton is known for crawdads and has a crawdad festival in June.)
The restaurant was charming, clean and busy.
The Mekong River overflows with testosterone and paddles in September as villages compete for bragging rights on the Mekong near Vientiane, Laos.