We had arranged our pick up for 7:30am so no chance of a lie in. The only cash point in My Tho that allows me to take cash out with my card has been out of order all week and my funds have finally dried up. Emma very kindly came to my rescue and paid my share for the trip and gave me some 'pocket money'. Cai Be is 1 hour by car from My Tho and I fought hard to stay awake but painfully gave in to the inevitable 5 minutes before arrival. We had found out about the markets from Lonely Planet so I was expecting hoards of tourists but saw none. The guide and driver were the only others on the boat and we were one of few boats that were not at work. If I am being honest the market was a little bit of a let down but that may have been my own fault. I had pictured small canoe like boats jostling for position selling extravagant delights. In reality, the boats were somewhat larger and the goods they sold fairly standard. If I am being fair their purpose isto provide for their customers not to satisfy, amuse and entertain tourists.

  Further down the river we stopped off to see how rice paper and coconut candy are made. Firstly we observed the lady making the paper. She works 7 days a week from sunrise to sunset making over 700 each day, every day of the year. So it was no surprise that what she made look very easy was in fact extremely difficult! (see pictures). The making of the candy was interesting to watch but I won't bore anybody with the finer details. Before we re-boarded we got a free sample of jasmine tea which was good I bought some to bring home.

  Our final stop was at the oldest house in town, a beautiful french colonial building. After a brief tour of the fruit garden we were taken to our table in the middle of the garden and left in absolute peace as our meal was prepared. It was well worth waiting for and another new dish for me. 'Elephant Ear Fish' thankfully named for its appearance not for its taste. We were shown how to roll it up in rice paper with cucumber and pineapple and then to dip it into fish sauce, delicious! Over the course of the next 30minutes various other dishes kept arriving, some I have no idea what they were but they all tasted fantastic. Stomachs about to burst we were ready for the short journey home.

  A free afternoon in My Tho was a rare opportunity that I was keen to make the most off. Unfortunately the weather had other ideas. I had just ridden the 20 minutes across town to the Pagoda and was seconds away from whipping out the camera when it began. I jumped back on my bike and pedalled furiously and just got safely home before it really came down. It was raining so hard we could not even hear the TV so there was only one thing to do...Sleep!

  When i awoke we had been joined by a new arrival, Angela (21) from Arizona, USA. In truth I was disappointed, she seems nice enough but I was really looking forward to a week on me own after Emma leaves. My sleep had made me hungry so I talked everyone in to braving the rain and coming for some food. Alex took us to a really nice place that did these huge pancakes that were stuffed with al sorts of meat and vegetables, somewhere I will be returning. I spent the rest of the evening drinking coffee and playing cards and as result could not get to sleep for ages!

Against my traditional beliefs, I did a Mekong 1-Day tour.  Supposedly it was the least touristy of the crop, but I think I may have been fooled.  It stopped off at the floating markets at first, which were nice to see and I was surprised in the fact that we weren't asked to buy anything by kids floating around on the boats.  Amazing stuff.  After being forced like cattle to go to some coconut candy workshop and rice cracker workshop, we got in seperate boats and were paddled down the river by folk gondala style. 

After a quick lunch, bicycles were rented and we got the chance to maybe get off the beaten path a bit.  Although, due to the time constraints, we coudln't wander too far.  I conversed a bit with the locals and ordered some sugarcane juice and sat by and watched the people pass by, always eagerlly saying hello.

It is time to say goodbye to Ho Chi Minh City, pity, because I’ve grown rather fond of it. The city feels the same way and doesn’t want to let us go, holding us tight in the morning traffic jams during rush hour. We have to take a short detour, some fellow travelers have ordered sheet sleeping bags at Benh Tam market, that they have not picked up yet. All in all this costs us an extra fifteen minutes to leave town.

We drive for about an hour and then make a short stop to stretch our legs a bit. From the roadside we see lots of monuments in the fields, looking like gravestones. Michel tells us that they are. The Vietnamese government is trying to convince the people to bury their dead in central cemeteries, but this is a slow process. Since the Vietnamese worship their ancestors, they prefer to keep their relatives close and bury them on their own land, where it is easy to visit and consult them.

Around ten we arrive at the Vinh Trang temple near My Tho. The two gates look spectacular, not because of their size, but because of the detail. The building of the Buddhist temple was started in 1849. The monk who ordered the build had been to Angkor Wat for three months, and here and there influences of the famous Cambodian temple complex can be found. Though colourful, Vinh Trang is no match for the Cao Dai cathedral we saw yesterday. It’s beautiful in a different way, it has a nice square with flowerpots with bonsai trees in them. It has a pond and a patio, and there’s peace and quiet. From the patio, where we sit on a bench to take off our shoes, we can enter the actual holy part of the temple. Except for the altar with the Buddha (with a horrific modern day halo of neon light) and a couple of statues spread throughout the room, decoration is humble. When we are outside putting on our shoes again, three monks enter the room we just came from. Quietly we follow them in and we observe them from the back of the room. The monks start chanting, sounding a bell every now and then. It is a mystical, almost enchanting sound that goes on seemingly without an end. When we’ve heard enough we leave the monks to their prayers and go out again to have another look around.

We leave the temple at 10.40 am, driving to Cai Be, where we take the boat to the island where we will be spending the night. Half along the way we anchor near a makeshift factory where local sweets are produced. First we see the process of making caramel rice crackers (popping rice in a large wok with heated river sand, putting the popped rice in another wok with hot caramel and blending them, and finally pressing the goo in a rectangular mold and cutting it into small portions). In the same building the sheets of rice paper are made from which the locals make there spring rolls. The sheets are dried outside in the sun, next to a boat someone seems to be building. The last part of the tour is the tasting, which is always nice. Some things are really good, like the freshly dried coconut, the caramel with tea extract and the spicy little crackers. Others make my taste buds moan in agony, like the ginger candy, uugghh!!! We buy two bags of the good stuff and set sail again.

Lots of things can be seen on the Mekong river, people work and live on and next to the water. All kinds of goods are transported on boats in all sizes. The large boats have fierce looking eyes painted on their bows, to scare off the crocodiles. When I ask why the small boats don’t have eyes, the answer is simple: Crocs don’t attack the small boats.

We anchor once more, for lunch this time. It’s quite a stroll to the restaurant and on the way we pass a lumber mill, but here too, it’s lunch break. A little further along the way a proud father is playing with his little daughter in a hammock. When the baby sees us (we do not even come close), she starts to cry and can’t be comforted. The parents, however, think this is very funny.

It is nearly half past one when we have a seat in the beautifully restored traditional wooden house, that has been turned into a restaurant. Amongst others there’s Elephant Ear Fish on the menu, this is a flat fish, fried with scales and everything, then to be served upright in a little rack on a plate. We have to scrape off the now curled scales (that look a bit like fingernails), then pluck off a little of the “meat” and roll it into a sheet of wet rice paper, together with some vegetables. It tastes very good, but it takes a long time to get something in your stomach when your wrapping skills are as good as mine. I should have paid more attention in kindergarten...

Before getting on the boat again we visit a company that makes coffins by hand. The lids alone must weigh a ton, they’re tree trunks sawed in half and then sanded down. A solid wooden lid like this prevents any man from rising from the dead.

It’s not quite four when we get to the homestay that we call home tonight. Our travel agent said we would be sleeping with the locals in this town, therefore I had not expected a covered row of bunks in the back of a rather big house. But let’s not complain, it ís back to basic, a blanket is our mattress and the pillows are hard as a rock. Mosquito nets are present, that’s a big plus, because there’s so much water around, this place must be swarming with hungry bugs as soon as it gets dark. Trudy’s mosquito net has some holes in it and to prevent the mosquitoes crawling through them, she rubs some bug repellent around them.

Before dinner we go for a cycling tour. Right in front of the homestay lies a tarmac path, about a metre wide, that meanders over the island. Cor, with his 73 years of age the eldest of our group, quits after 200 metres, when he drives his bike full frontal into a hedge for the third time. He can’t maintain his balance on a mountain bike, he says, and he walks back to where we came from. We pause in an establishment with a beautiful garden in the back that has bonsais and glorious flowers. A good chance for some experimenting with my camera. Before we know it, everyone is drinking cool drinks and eating fresh jackfruit except for Caroline, Trudy and myself. We join the rest and for the first time in our lives we taste the strangely shaped, sweet, yellow fruit. We go get our steel horses and ride back to the homestay, where we chat with Cor and Janny for a while.

There’s still time before dinner and it’s not dark yet, so we go for a little walk to scout the area. We go through the tiny village and then cross the bridge over a branch of the Mekong river. On the bridge we meet three children who are determined to have their picture taken when they see my camera, fortunately we live in the digital era. A little further on somebody is doing laundry, by hand of course. The light is fading now, so we start walking back to the homestay, where dinner is served shortly.

After dinner a show with traditional music is put on, but, let’s say, most of us have a slightly different taste than the old Vietnamese. But we are having fun, that’s what matters.

When the clock strikes ten, Trudy and I hit the showers, but it is still so hot and damp outside, that I am already sticky again before I have settled myself on my bunk.

The bunk is short, narrow and hard, but it is fantastic to lie in bed and hear the crickets doing their utmost to make more noise than everything else in the nightly Mekong Delta.

06:00 opstaan, ontbijten en check-out. 08:00 uur vertrek uit Ho Chi Minh City. We worstelen ons door het drukke verkeer naar Benh Tan Market, waar een paar medereizigers een lakenzak besteld hebben, die ze nog moeten halen. Met omrijden erbij geteld kost dit ± 15 min. De eerst volgende stop die we maken is pas om 09:15. Hier liggen verspreid over de velden mensen begraven, de regering wil naar centrale begraafplaatsen toe, maar gezien de Vietnamezen aan voorouderverering doen begraven die de overledenen liever dicht bij huis op eigen grond. Om 10:00 komen we bij de Vink Trany tempel in My Tho aan. Deze tempel is boedistisch en is gebouwd in 1849 in de bouwstijl van Angkor Wat in Cambodja. De monnik die daar 3 maanden was geweest gaf opdracht tot de bouw van deze tempel. Om in het heilige gedeelte van het complex (de eigenlijke tempel) moeten we onze schoenen uit doen. We kijken even rond en als we weer op de binnenplaatsje op een bankje zitten onze schoenen weer aan te doen, zien we drie jonge monniken naar binnen gaan. We stoppen met strikken en volgen de monniken op de (kousen) voet. De monniken beginneb aan een gezang waarnaar we een tijdje luisteren, maar het duurt zo lang dat we besluiten ze alleen te laten en buiten nog even rond te kijken. We zijn Zoals afgesproken precies om 10:40 weer bij de bus. Van de tempel uit rijden we naar Cai Be waar we op de boot gaan waarmee we naar het eiland varen waar we overnachten. Halverwege leggen we nog ergens aan waar snoep gemaakt wordt. Het eerste proces dat rivierzand verhit is. Er wordt geroerd tot de rijst “ontploft’. Het zand wordt er dan uit gezeefd, vervolgens worden de ongeplofte rijstkorrels eruit gezeefd en dan worden de gepofte rijstkorrels in een andere grote wok met verhitte ingedrkte caramel gegooid en door elkaar gehusseld. De massa wordt in een mal gedaan en gewalst en vervolgens in blokjes gesneden en verpakt. In het zelfde gebouw worden de vellen rijstpapier gemaakt waarvan men hier loempia’s e.d. maakt. De vellen worden buiten te drogen gelegd. Er worden ook nog caramelblokjes gemaakt. We mogen van alles proeven en krijgen er een lekker bakje thee bij. Sommige dingen zijn erg lekker ( vers gedroogde kokos, caramel met thee extract en één of ander pittig zoutje), anderen zijn minder lekker, zoals de gember snoepjes. We nemen 2 zakjes lekkers mee voor ±€1,- per zakje en varen weer verder. Er is van alles te zien op de Mekong. Mensen leven en werken op en aan de rivier. Er wordt ook van alles vervoerd op de boten van alle maten. De grote boten hebben ogen op de boeg geschilderd, dit is om de krokodillen weg te jagen (die hier niet meer leven). We leggen nog een keer aan om te lunchen. We moeten hiervoor nog een behoorlijk stuk wandelen. We komen langs een houtzagerij en even verderop speelt een trotse vader met zijn dochter in de hangmat. De kleine meid zet het op een blèren als ze die enge toeristen ziet, De ouders zien er de humor wel van in. Het is bijna 13:30 als we aan tafel schuiven in een oud Vietnamees huis dat erg mooi gerestaureerd is. Op het menu staat o.a. elephant ear fish, dit is een platte vis, die met schubben en al gebakken is en rechtopstaand op een bord geserveerd word. De schubben moet je eraf schrapen en het “vlees” rol je samen met wat groenten in een velletje nat gemaakt rijstpapier. Het smaakt goed, maar het is een hoop werk voor je wat binnen krijgt. We delen een tafel met Joop en Caroline en het is weer als vanouds gezellig. Voor we weer de boot op gaan komen we bij een bedrijfje dat lijkkisten maakt. De deksels van de kisten zijn doorgezaagde boomstammen, deze zijn massief en met de hand gemaakt. Tegen 16:00 komen we bij de homestay waar we overnachten. Het is niet “slapen bij de lokale bevolking” zoals de reisgids beloofde, maar eenvoudig is het wel. We slapen op een brits, met een deken en laken als matras en een hard kussen. Gelukkig zijn er wel klamboes. Trudy moet nog aan de gang met veiligheidsspelden, want in haar muskietennet zitten een paar gaten. Voor de zekerheid smeert ze  “haar gat” ook even in met deet. Voor het eten gaan we nog een fietstochtje maken over geasfalteerde paadjes van ± 1meter breed. 200meter na het vertrek geeft Cor (met zijn 73 de oudste van de groep) het op, want hij kan zijn evenwicht niet houden op de mountainbike (de keer dat hij recht voor mijn neus een heg in fietst, is volgens zijn zeggen al de derde keer). Halverwege de tocht stoppen we bij een tuin waar bonsai bomen en een hoop mooie bloemen staan. Een mooie gelegenheid om met onze camera te experimenteren. Trudy en Caroline zoeken ook mee naar mooie bloemen en voor we het weten zijn we de enige die nog tussen de planten zitten en zit de rest al aan de koele drankjes en het verse fruit. We voegen ons weer bij de groep en eten voor het eerst in ons leven Jack fruit. Het is geel, heeft een heel bijzondere vorem en smaakt lekker zoet. Als het nog niet gepeld is lijkt het op Durian. Als het fruit op is fietsen we terug naar de homestay, waar we even met Cor en Jannie buurten. Trudy, Caroline en ik gaan nog even wandelen, want het is nog niet donker en we eten pas om 19:30. We lopen een stuk door het piep kleine dorpje en steken dan de vertakking van de Mekong over d.m.v een brug. Op de brug maak ik nog 4 foto’s , 2 van de rivier en 2 van 3 Vietnameesche kinderen die heel graag op de foto willen. Even verderop doet nog iemand de was in de rivier. Het begint nu te schemeren en we lopen via de andere kant van de rivier ( en dus nog een brug om weer aan de goede kant te komen) terug naar de homesty. Na het gezamelijke diner van 19:30 is er nog traditionele muziek, maar die kan ons niet echt bekoren. Gezellig is het wel. Tegen 22:00 gaan Trudy en ik douchen, maar het is nog zo warm dat ik al weer helemaal plakkerig ben voor ik me op mijn brits geïnstalleerd heb. De brits is te kort, te smal en te hard, maar het is fantastisch om naar de nachtelijke geluiden van de natuur te luisteren ( de krekels tsjerpen of hun leven er van af hangt). Ik kijk om 23:15 voor het laatst op mijn harloge.

Always wanting to visit Vietnam ever since 2004, even bought my copy of Lonely Planet 7th edition on Vietnam at that time (now 8th edition), but never had a chance to go due to reason like: 1) No friend are interested to go with me 2) Hearing “unfriendly” comment about Vietnam that make u think say to yourself “hmm, better not to go” Until one day, my brother-in-law was mentioning it, as he was going over for business! Ha, here’s my chance! I try my luck and ask around my friend “anyone wants to go Vietnam with me”. To my surprise, 2 of my good friend agree and we start planning on our trip. We read up our Lonely Planet, using information from it, we book our stays with one of the backpackers’ inn in pamulao �" a street where u can find: 1) Lots of backpackers’ inns at a reasonable rate say US$6-US$22 depending on your needs. 2) Lots of travel agencies that cater from city tour to a few day tour, air ticket, train ticket, open tour bus, etc. 3) Lots of cafes that provide good food from local to western. Overall, this a convenient places to stay. We decide to book tours (due to safety n convenient reason) for: 1) City tour for HO CHI MING CITY 2) Mekong Delta (3days) These tours did not really cost much to us, But the traveling time was considered quite long (from point A to point B). It really hurt your butt after a long journey! To make the storey short, friendly people and nice view made the trip enjoyable n fulfilling, even thought it’s a little polluted. Will try to visit the north for the next trip to Vietnam.