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Published: September 24th 2012
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First some advise about these tours...basically they are all the same!!! We walked around HCM visiting a number of travel agencies to pick out a tour that suited us. There were some marginal differences in price but we eventually settled on a 3 day trip which ended with a slow boat across the Vietnamese border and up the Mekong to Phnom Penn in Cambodia. We also decided to do a home stay in the Mekong. When we talked to other people on the trip it appears that a number of tours had been amalgamated resulting in frequent changes of guides and plans as, for example, the one day tourists went in one minibus back to HCM while the rest of us packed into an overcrowded minibus to travel a few hours to our nights accommodation. None of this was a real problem except that we had to insist that we had booked and paid for a homestay and the South African couple had paid about $70 extra for a fast boat to Phnom Penn. In fact no boats eventuated and we went by overcrowded mini bus!! It was really hard for the South Africans to get a refund.
AS long
as you dont expect the tours to stick to what they promise the three day trip was really worthwhile.
WE started with an hour and a half bus ride to My Tho. We then transfered to a small long boat and headed out into thedelta with water lapping the sides to visit an island where we had honey tea laced with pollen and cumquat juice. there was also a big snake. WE then tranfered to a small rowboat poled through the palm swamp by a local lady to visit a village where we were entertained by folk songs and ate fruit including pineapple, papaya, dragon fruit, mangosteen and jack fruit. Back to the main boat and a visit to a coconut candy workshop followed by lunch at the island formerly owned by "The Coconut Monk". Here we walked across palm log bridges, saw crocodiles and visited the monks folly.
Bank on the mainland we separated from the one day tourists and headed in a crowded minibus for a 2 hour bus ride to Can Tho. Here we met the old gentleman who ran the homestay but there was a problem as he didnt speak English and I would/could
not travel by motorbike. (no insurance cover; having to double me and a big pack on the back). Eventually we got a taxi for a half hour trip out of toen to walk through some rice paddies, along a duck filled canal to the farmhouse. Here we met the son, Phu, aged about 30 and speaking excellent English. He mentioned that the young people no longer want to work the farms. He runs a market stall and he and his brothers only come home to help with the harvest. We got the impression that life for people with a bit of enterprise was quite difficult under the communist regime. The family was very nice but there was a language barrier. The old lady cooked dinner for us of Banh Xeo..a rice pancake stuffed with bean sprouts, carrots etc; tofu and green beans; pork and carrot; pumpkin; rice; and pineapple. They had modernised the bathroom and built an addition of 3 guestrooms to supplement their income.
The next day we woke to the sound of roosters at 5am. There was a monkey in a cage and a lovely area of flowering water lillies. After breakfast of noodles we were taken
to the wharf at the local market where there was a floating eco toilet!! We reconnected with the main tour group for a trip around the floating market. Boats travel up to 150km to reach the market. The indicate what they have to sell by raising a pole with produce on the top eg turnip, carrots etc. The banks were lined with stilt houses jutting over the water and there was a constant parade of various barges travelling up the Mekong. Some were filled with sand and bricks and had water lapping over the sides. We went up a tributary to where they made rice noodles by cooking rice and tapioca then filtering it. It was ladled out of a steaming cauldron and formed in to sheets which dried in the sun for 3 or 4 hours. It was then shredded into 5kg packages which sold for $1.50. On past people bathing in the muddy river to a fruit farm growing dragon fruit pineapple, jakfruit, papaya, tree strawberries, cumquats, limes and pomelos. It rained on the way back to Can tho where we were left to ourselves for lunch. Frank and I walked into the toewn and found a local
restaurant wher ewe had vegies, beef and noodles for $1.50 and beer for 75cents.
Onto another bus via a crocodile farm where they produced meat and some exquisite leather goods. Judging by the cars it was owned by some very wealthy people. We arrived at sam mountain which stood up out of the surrounding flood plain and had views to Cambodia. We climbed up the many steps past white buddhas wearing sunglasses. Apparently the monastry was founded by a lady called Le Thi Tho who converted 2 snakes who lived in a cavern inside the mountain. When she died the snakes disappeared but the cave was there with lots of buddhas and replicas of the snakes and there was a working monastry with grey robed monks and nuns.
The hotel organised for us was 2 star at most but was clean and bearable. We stalked an Intrepid group knowing they would lead us to a good restaurant. We ate clay pot fish at Bay Bong restaurant and then walked back via the market.
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