Mekong Delta

This was a 2 day trip as the distances involved are quite big for Vietnam. Our guide for the trip was a Vietnamese man called Xuy (pronounce Wii but said everyone called him skinny Wii as he smokes too much and never eats!). He really did make the trip. He was so funny - and so blunt - he would ask “do you need number 2s?” We set off on a coach which included a group of sisters from California. Hello to Hayley, Marina, Bronwyn and Aria (we hope we have spelt your names correctly) if you are reading this. They were staying in the same place as us and we seemed to bump into them quite a bit. Our first stop was for lunch. We had to get a boat to an island on the Mekong River and then to this beautiful setting amongst Lychee trees. We sat with the girls again and another nice couple from Holland who told us last year they walked across France to Spain - over 2000km. That’s one of the things we love about travelling, you meet some really interesting people. Anyway, the food was lovely and as always, being a vegetarian here was no problem. After lunch we got back on the boat and went to a coconut candy workshop where we could see and taste the candy being made. A lovely cup of honey bee tea (no bees in it!) followed and Bryan got to play with a big snake. Whisked away from there by rowing boat (more like our punting) which was beautiful and it really slowed the pace down. They gave us traditional Vietnamese hats to wear which really added to the overall ambience of it. Onto our next stop off - again in a beautiful setting for some traditional Vietnamese folk music and singing. The music was ok but I think they should give the singing a miss! We had some more tea and a plate of lovely local fruit to taste. Apparently the fruit has to be eaten in the correct order; dragon fruit, something we can’t remember the name of, jack fruit, banana, pineapple. All lovely whatever order you ate it in. From there we had to split up as some people were staying in a hotel and others in a home-stay. The American girls were with us again as we were dumped at the side of the road waiting to be met to take up to our home-stay (this is where you stay with a family in their own home). By the time he turned up and had walked us to his boat it was dark so we couldn’t really see much as we arrived down the river. Our hut was very basic and quite dingy. Still we all met in the dining area and as there was no TV to watch the Royal Wedding, we helped roll the pancake rolls for dinner and chatted to the others. Next morning we had to be away very early so breakfast on the boat. The floating markets start early and Xuy didn’t want to be late. We met with the rest of the group and spent the next 2 hours going up and down the Mekong River watching all the trading boats and watching vietnamese life sail by.