Mekong Delta in "floating season": A real travel experience

ABO/NDO – “Floating season” in Mekong Delta, when the water level is on the rise and the rivers and canals expand, takes place from the seventh to the ninth lunar month. The annual floodwaters carry nutrient-rich alluvium to farmland and provide a bounty of fish, shrimp and other aquatic species. It also marks the start of a unique tourist season in the region.

The annual floodwaters in the Mekong Delta provide a bounty of fish, shrimp, and other aquatic species.

This year, the season started two weeks early, with the water level 30-50 centimetres higher than usual. Currently, most of the rice fields have been harvested. Floodwater has covered residential areas, roads and fields in Dong Thap and Long An province, and the vast fields now become busy with boats, which are used by the locals both as a major means of transport and a means to catch fish.

Among the major sources of income for Mekong Delta residents while surrounded by the rising water are linh fish (Henicorhynchus), crabs, and snails.

 

A kilogramme of linh fish can be sold for VND60,000 in the early flood season and VND40,000 during the peak time. The fish are collected by traders and restaurants and they can be resold for triple after processing.

 

On their boats, locals sell various specialties of “floating season”, such as lotus stems, water lilies, dien dien flowers, and other sweet products made from sugar palm trees.

A hot pot of 'linh' fish is a colourful harmony of taste and colours.

Young farmer Huy was swimming to the corn field, which is flooded under 1.5-2 metres of water, in order to collect corn stalks, which can be used as food for oxen or a source of fertiliser.

He said that his family produces only two rice crops a year and they are off during the flood season to let the farmland “relax” and conserve nutrition for new crops. When the water level is low, the family cultivate fast growing vegetables. If the water level is high, Huy earns income from casting a fishing net and collecting dien dien flowers.

 

The Mekong Delta region’s cuisine is renowned for many appetising dishes made from local specialties and using unique cooking methods, such as chicken and rice steamed in lotus leaves, straw roasted fish, braised duck with fermented tofu, salad of sau dau leaves and seasoned dried fish.

 

“Floating season” is a good time for foodies coming to the Mekong Delta to taste dishes made from the signature vegetables and herbs of the season, including hot pot of linh fish and dien dien flowers, crispy fried linh fish, tiny shrimp fried with dien dien flowers.

 

(Source: NDO)