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Published: January 14th 2011
our first stop
these are all over the place and I'm obsessed...open-air restaurants with hammocks instead or accompanying the stoolsYesterday was a nothing day and it was nice to relax. Today we went to the travel agency at 7:15 and were on the bus (we walked to our hotel's street again) at 8:00 with Tao, our guide. Before this we stopped for a quick breakfast of baguette with jam/butter and one with ham/cheese (don't worry, it was Laughing Cow) because last time we were really hungry by the time lunch rolled around.
A little info Tao gave us about the Mekong river was that it is 4,500 km and goes through 6 countries with the delta covering 40,000 square km. What we didn't know was that to see the big floating market you would have to do a two day tour or more because it is really far away. That meant that we were going to see a smaller one closer by and I wish we'd known so we could have done a two day trip!
Anyways, we got to Cai Be at 10:40 and got on our little boat with bamboo chairs and I snagged the hammock. The floating market we saw was basically just a bunch of parked boats. Interestingly, though, they don't have any signs
and just have a long bamboo stick with one or two of their products hanging to show what they are selling. Depending on the product there is either a 20 or 100 kilo minimum! 6:00-13:00 is the busiest time, so we were there at a good hour.
After this we went on smaller wooden boats that sat four people in single-file with the rower standing at the back with two oars. This took us to another island where we then had a small lunch. After, we took the much-advertised bike ride which lasted for maybe 5 minutes down the main road to where the boat was parked -- what a joke. In retrospect, though, maybe it was a good thing the ride was so short because any longer and I'm sure I would have bit the dust. My bike was so old and way too big with tiny pedals.
Then it was back on the boat to get to the bus for the long 3 or so hours home. We stopped once for snacks/restrooms and other than that made it smoothly back to the pick-up point without rush-hour traffic! Lovely!
Tomorrow we will see the War of
the Remnants Museum and the Reunification building. Hope it's not rainy!
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Tia
non-member comment
Love the pictures
Love all the pictures of the boats and floating markets... hopefully you have even more that you didn't post.