Mekong Delta & Homestay

Yesterday at 9am we were off for the Mekong Delta. The delta is the triangular southern tip of Vietnam, which they annexed from Cambodia at some point in the past. It has lots of canals and waterways and subsequently is where most of the rice comes from.

It was a 3 hour ride in a 16-passenger van. Not bad. We had to get explicit instructions written out by our Saigon hotel host to give to the driver to have him drop us off at the ferry once in Vinh Long (our destination). Once there we stopped into the nearby tourist office to arrange for a boat to take us to the homestay. There was some confusion about the homestay but it all worked out. The little boat rode for about half an hour along the Mekong river and up a canal to our homestay. From there the woman on the boat walked us 5-10 mins up to the homestay itself. It was so nice to finally be there and it was perfect - quiet on a small road but completely surrounded by nature. There were only two other rooms booked that night. We spend the rest of the day reading, eating fruit and drinking beer. Took a bike ride around and waved to the kids we passed, who all say "Hello!" when they see us. Around 7, they served us an amazing dinner, the best of the trip so far. Squash in broth, whole fried fish which we made into rolls with rice paper, whole (huge) shrimp/prawns, rice of course, spring rolls. Delish!

From Vietnam

From Vietnam

From Vietnam

From Vietnam

Our rooms were relatively open to the outside - with windows/slits along the top of the walls and only a partial wall on one side. It was great to hearing all the relaxing nature sounds (especially once the distant but loud blaring of radio stopped....we saw this in india too and dmitriy said its typical communist radio. they just have a few stations and some of the really small towns have a speaker set up and just blast it all day. its traditional music though, so more evocative than annoying) I was really cold throughout the night unfortunately, but I woke up early, 6am, to the continued sound of the distant radio, roosters crowing, things flipping around in the stream near my bed, and... to my 28th birthday! We had breakfast then hopped on the boat for another tour. Again, there was some confusion about the boat, but we went off. The boat took us about an hour drive further south to Cai Be to see a floating market and then to a family who makes candy (and sells it to tourists :). Berman (Dmitriy) bought me some as a bday gift :)

From Vietnam

From Vietnam

We got dropped off at the ferry station again, and had to get the tourist office's help again, this time to help with coordinating our van back which was prepaid but we didnt have the ticket stub. Nothing is simple :) but seems like people are helpful enough to help us work it out.

We arrived back in Saigon today. Chilled out, had some pho, chilled out some more in our rooms. Soon we are going to dinner...dmitriy is taking me out for my bday :) (Yes, Frank, you owe him a thanks :) We are going to Temple Club, which is one of the nicer restaurants here (still just 15 bucks a person!). Apparently Brad and Angelina ate here when they picked up Pax. COOL.