Overnight we anchored somewhere between Vĩnh Long and Sa Đéc, our next stop.
During breakfast we completed the 23 km down river and transferred into tenders to visit a local brick factory. Large parabolic bell shaped brick structures came into sight as we were coming in, which turned out to be some of the many kilns used for firing the bricks and tiles. The traditional fuel for the kilns is husks from hulled rice, which we saw being unloaded from barges by men with two large baskets balanced on either end of a pole across their shoulders. Save for the clothes it was very much a traditional scene; as was the rest of the process- all done by hand using very little modern machinery. The bricks we saw seemed more like strong terracotta than the bricks we know.
After the bricks are fired the ash is returned to farmers for their fields. The kilns are now unfortunately causing an environmental issue because smoke goes directly into the atmosphere with very little to no filtration adding to particulate pollution in the delta, as does the traditional practice of burning rubble in the fields after harvesting.
After the factory it was over to Huỳnh Thủy Lê’s house; significant because although Huỳnh Thủy Lê was from a prominent local Chinese family he and, the later writer, Marguerite Duras were lovers at a time when romantic involvement between the French and locals (or rather French women) was a strict no no.
Once back on board it was time to relax as anchors were upped and we got underway to cruise roughly 100 km to Tân Châu.
