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Sorbonne in France. She wrote many novels, plays and film scripts including the autobiographical novel The Lover (1984) which sold over three million copies and was translated into forty languages. Its subject is an interracial affair between a 15-year-old French girl and her middle-aged Chinese lover, set in 1930s’ Indochina. Duras had little sympathy for her peers, of whom she wrote “I look at the (French) women in the streets of Saigon. They don’t do anything, just save themselves up… Some of them go mad…some are deserted for a young maid.” Duras clearly had no intention of letting life pass her by in this way, even if it meant becoming the subject of the town’s gossip.

Though her novels are principally about the inner thoughts of her characters, she also describes the landscape around Sa Dec as it still appears today: “In the surrounding flatness, stretching as far as the eye can see, the rivers flow as if the earth slopes downward.”

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The Mekong Delta | Sa Dec |

Practicalities

Buses terminate 300m southeast of the town centre. The town’s post office, at the corner of Nguyen Sinh Sac and Hung Vuong, also has internet access.

Accommodation in Sa Dec is pretty limited. The best value in town is the family-run, mini-hotel Huong Thuy (067/386 8963; US$10 and under–20) at 58 Le Thanh Ton: it’s centrally located with immaculately clean, air-conditioned rooms which all have hot water, TVs and fridges. Alternatively, there’s little to choose between the Bong Hong at 251a Nguyen Sinh Sac (067/386 8287; US$11–30) and the Sa Dec, 108/5a Hung Vuong (067/386 1430; US$11–30), at the northern end of the street: both are reasonable if uninspiring places to stay. Eating options are also fairly limited: the Com Thuy at 439 Hung Vuong, serves up Vietnamese staples and has an English menu, while the family-run Chanh Ky, at 193 Nguyen Sinh Sac, doles out Chinese noodles and rice dishes for under $2 that you can wash down with cold beer. The Bong Hong and Sa Dec hotels also have their own, rather soulless, attached restaurants.

The Mekong Delta |

Can Tho and around

A population of around half a million makes CAN THO the delta’s biggest city, and losing yourself in its commercial thrum for a few days is the perfect antidote to time spent in quiet backwaters of the delta. However, first impressions are rather less than encouraging: Can Tho is a hefty settlement but, once the oppressive urban sprawl encasing the town has been negotiated, its breezy waterfront comes as a pleasant surprise.

At the confluence of the Can Tho and Hau Giang rivers, the city is a major mercantile centre and transport interchange. But Can Tho is no mere staging post. Some of the best restaurants in the delta are located here; what’s more, the abundant rice fields of Can Tho Province are never far away, and at the inter-sections of the canals and rivers that thread between them are some of the delta’s best-known floating markets. Can Tho was the last city to succumb to the North Vietnamese Army, a day after the fall of Saigon, on May 1, 1975 – the date that has come to represent the reunification of the country.

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The Mekong Delta | Can Tho and around |

Bridging the Delta

The Mekong River deposits tons of fertile earth on the delta each year, making the region’s produce so abundant, but it also provides a barrier to swift travel, forcing drivers to queue for hours to cross its countless channels by slow, lumbering ferries. In the late 1990s a plan was hatched to build huge bridges at three key points in the delta – My Thuan, My Tho and Can Tho – in order to cut down journey times. The first of these, at My Thuan, crossing the Tien Giang, opened in 2000 and immediately slashed hours off journey times. The second, linking My Tho and Ben Tre, suffered delays but finally opened in early 2009. The third and biggest project, crossing the widest of the Mekong’s nine arms (the Hau Giang) at Can Tho, was the scene of a tragic accident in September 2007 when a 90-metre section of an approach ramp collapsed, killing more than 50