Mekong Delta - Fun on the Water!

At breakfast, met another Australian family on holiday.  The college kid was so sweet - he said I didn't look a day over 20.  What a charmer!  It could also have been the fact that I tied my hair in braids and looked like a Chinese peasant girl, but whatever.  I'll take compliments wherever I can!  :)

Anh picked us up for the Mekong Delta tour.   We drove out of the city for about 2 hours.  Anh showed us ponds filled with lotuses and morning glories - that are harvested and sold.  There were also fish ponds where fish were farmed.  The Vietnamese seem to be very resourceful folk, but I guess they had to be to survive...

Our first stop was in a tiny village where we watched a family make rice noodles.

  It reminded me of my grandpa's farm back in Taiwan - very primitive country living, surrounded by your entire extended family and family livestock (hogs and chickens).  Then we headed to a buddhist temple - pretty but strange mix of architectural styles with a huge buddha in the front.  (sorry - can't remember the name...)

Afterwards we hopped onto our own boat.  Anh explained to us the different islands, the suspension bridge that was being built; showed us the various fish farms on the water, etc.  He also claimed the water was used by local women for bathing and that legend had it that the water would make women beautiful; but it was hard to believe him when looking into the brown murky waters.  The ride however was very nice, with a cool breeze.

  Our boat's first stop was on Unicorn Island to a fruit orchard to sample exotic fruits and listen to folk music.  It was quite pleasant.  We got grapefruit, pineapple, papaya, jackfruit and papaya.  I really loved the papaya (so sweet); the jackfruit was interesting - I had never had it before.  Anh explained that they often dipped the more tart fruit into salt and chili powder to balance out the taste - we tried it with the grapefruit and pineapple - very good!  (I have noticed that pineapple isn't that good in Vietnam or Bali - stick with the mangos, papayas, etc.).

When we returned to the boat, our captain provided us with coconut water to drink - straight from a coconut!  yum!  They seem to be intent on feeding us all day!  At some point our boat stalled .

.. we weren't sure why until Anh mentioned that our captain had disappeared.  Apparently, he had stripped and jumped into the murky water to fix the boat.  For a half second I thought we would be stranded!  But our hero captain discovered the culprit jamming the engine and emerged victorious from the waters.  :)  We drove past an island where the "coconut religion" was founded .... didn't really understand it other than that they believed coconuts were super healthy ....

The snacking continued with a visit to a coconut candy establishment - I of course bought a bunch as gifts (can't resist) - anyways, they were quite tasty.  We got fresh samples, still warm.  They were also selling novelty items such as liquor bottles with snakes or geckos in them.

  creepy looking.  They tried to get me to try snake wine but I declined - I had snake before - don't see the need to try just for the thrill.  Anyways, I don't need the wine to boost my virility.  :)  I did try some coconut wine - very smooth and light, not harsh like moonshine.

We took a cute horse cart ride through a village - so cheezy but I loved it! The little horse was quite powerful!  After "exerting" ourselves sitting on our fat butts on a cart we were offered more refreshments - this time tea with honey and kumquat juice.  Very refreshing.  They also had pet snakes you could "play" with.  Obviously another tourist gimmick.  But sometimes you just have to accept and revel in it.

Next, we took a leisurely sampan ride through beautiful, leaf lined waters towards our lunch destination - Hao Ai - at the entrance a water buffalo was 90% immersed in the water cooling off.

  He was very puzzled when we all took photos of him.  The locals thought we were silly.  Here we had a lovely set lunch - fried elephant fish, which were made into spring rolls, various fried veggies, sticky rice, soup, braise pork, sauteed morning glory, pineapples.  Quite nice - we even saw one of the servers catching the fish with a net (i think it's for show...but I'm cynical that way).

After another crazy drive into the city, we bid farewell to our guide and driver.  I really enjoyed the attentive tours we received - it's a bit expensive to hire your own driver/guide, but sometimes it's worth not sitting in a hot bus, waiting for everyone on the tour to finish, etc.

We had a few beers, ice coffees; strolled through town again (we are getting better at crossing streets now) and ended up in what we thought was a sports bar; but after a while we suspected it was some sort of "escort bar" - lots of english guys with scantily clad asian women.

  hmmmm....  After we realized we were probably not welcome there we went to dinner at Vietnam House - a recommendation by Anh since we couldn't get into Lemongrass, a more popular sister restaurant.  While the food was pretty at Vietnam House, nothing was particularly good other than the fish cooked in clay pot (so tender and sweet) and the sauteed morning glory.

Near our hostel, there's a bar literally called "Bar" with a blue neon sign.  A and I had decided we would check it out - so we had drinks there on the 2nd floor and watched the busy life downstairs until we got sleepy. 

Tomorrow - onto Hanoi!