Mekong Delta

Hello everyone. I'm sorry if I'm repeating myself here, but we cannot view our blog and it is pissing me off! I usually read what I wrote last so you don't have to endure the same story twice (I am getting on in years and my memory is not so good).

Hmmm, I do remember looking for a beer afterward our quick post yesterday, and not finding one. Go figger. Internet, no problem, but beer??? What is UP with that?

We went to a cafe of sorts where I had Yellow Elk Energy Drink which tasted suspiciously like Red Bull. I like Yellow Elk better.

It was a very long walk home, and we made it just before dark. We were out from 1:15 - 6:30, just wandering around watching local life. It doesn't move quickly here. The children all came out in their singsong voices "hello hello!" and I played a great game of scare the children. In a good way of course. They shrieked away laughing. I guess I make a good monster.

Yesterday morning we started our 3 day Mekong Delta tour with a boat trip from Chau Doc to a nearby Cham village and saw how they did weaving (all by hand), and saw the flood levels that were registered on the side of a house - it gets mighty wet here! There were, of course, a small horde or children waiting to sell us stuff, but at least this time it was food. Something useful! "Mister - 2 2 2 2 for one dolla!"

Next we went to the floating-house fish farms. Many people here live right on the river and most raise fish in pens under their houses. We visited one such house and saw how crazy the fish go when you drop a couple of handfuls of fish food in the pen. The fish food looks like dog chow, and the fish go absolutely mental for it. There is a trap door in the floor, and you open it up and drop in the food. And then, stand back to avoid a fish splash shower! One pen can have 80,000 hungry fish in it!

From the boat trip, we jumped on an air con bus to take us to Can Tho and our home stay.

A word about our tour: We have done a bit of a mix and match tour. I'm not sure how this has been communicated to all parties, but so far so it's gone surprisingly smoothly. It's been interesting.

So, back to the homestay. We arrived at Can Tho where Hung met us with his trusty motorcycle. He and a friend dropped us at another dock where we got on a boat and went to the Hung Homestay. We arrived at about 12:30 and were ravenous (due to the very minimal breakfast in the a.m.)

The homestay was not what I expected. There was not a lot of interaction with the family, and we were left on our own most of the time (thus the 5 hour walk). Oh well. You win some, you lose some. Thankfully there was cold beer at the house on our return, and a couple from New Zealand had just arrived, so we had someone to swap stories with over dinner. There was much laughter.

This morning we visited the floating market which was interesting, but it appeared to be mostly wholesale transactions. To determine what a boat is selling, one must simply look at its mast. If you see hanging pineapples - it sells pineapples. Watermelons, potatoes, jicamas - you get the picture. Not a lot for individuals to buy though.

We then went to see how rice paper and rice noodles are made, and finally, a stroll through a village to see how the people live (as if we didn't do this enough yesterday!!) We found a monkey bridge to traverse which was kind of fun - how do they do this with a load of stuff?

We are now in My Tho, avoiding the monsoon at the comfy internet shop. Doesn't look like this town has many options for a night out, but I'm sure we'll find something to entertain ourselves.

Stay tuned - we're nearly home. Back to Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow for some last minute shopping on Sunday, and back home on Monday. I can't believe it's nearly over.....

Cheers!