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Published: November 13th 2006
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You dont see signs with
Dem on them often this was in PP We've just crossed into our next country, we had a great trip from Phnom Penh into Nam.
We booked the 3 day/2 night Mekong Delta Experience which for $US34 included all transport ,accommodation and various side trips, AMAZING VALUE AND HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
We got picked up by mini van from our hotel and taken to the boat for our journey down the Mekong, we were really lucky apparently they normally have 20-25 people on our trip but we only had 8, 3 couples from Norway (1 couple was working in PP and the other two had come over to visit) and us.
We cruised down the Mekong for a couple of hours till we reached the Cambodian border where we got off and got stamped out of the country then got back on the boat and travelled about a mile till just short of the Vietnam border where we again got off and walked across into Nam, the border formalities were made so easy by the company we travelled with, after paying 20 cents for a "Health Cert" our guide then took our passports and while we waited in a cafe he went and got them stamped, we then got on
another boat and travelled about 2 hours to a place called Chau Doc which is a small fishing town in the Mekong Delta.
The people here either farm rice or fish, over 75% of Nam's food is produced here.
The fish farmers live in floating houses that have a steel cage underneath which hold the fish.
We stayed in a really nice hotel which amazed us, for the price we paid we expected to be roughing it a little bit but the whole trip was top quality.
We went out for a walk before dinner around town and were amazed by how friendly everyone was, they don't get a huge amount of tourists here so where ever we went people were shouting hello and forcing their kids to wave, it was really nice although a tad tiring.
Went to dinner in a local restaurant which was great as the chef came out with our order and showed us what went with what which was helpful as you get all these different little bowls of god knows what, he then came out again afterwards to see if we had enjoyed it which we had.
The next morning we walked up Sam
Mountain (which is more of a hill) to visit a local Pagoda and see the view of the rice fields and river then we went back down to the river to see how they farm the fish, for the fish farms we travelled in small boats that were all rowed by ladies and taken around all the houses it was an amazing morning and one of my highlights of our trip so far for me,the best part was all the ladies had a child with them all under the age of 5 and all adorable, the little boy we had was shy at first and stayed at the back of the boat but eventually he moved up and sat by Dem where i took a photo of them, i showed him the picture and it was amazing to see the look on his face and hear him saying me, i don't think he'd seen himself on a digital camera before, the mother nearly tipped us over waving at me to show her as well.
He then sat by me and kept playing with my watch so i took it off and put it on him, he couldn't take his eyes
off it (see photo) so i gave it to him you've never seen a smile like it, i just hope he gets the chance to learn how to tell the time.
After the fish farms they rowed us to a Cham village where they weave sarongs and pashminas on old wooden weaving machines it was quite interesting to watch and of course we brought, its better to buy from the manufacturer direct than the market traders.
We were then rowed back to the dock where we boarded our big boat to continue down river towards HCMC.
Spent the night in Can Tho which is another slightly larger riverside town again really nice and friendly.
Went out to a restaurant which overlooked the local market for dinner and i had the snake set menu which was snake spring rolls followed by snake curry, it was really nice and yes it tastes a bit like chicken, doesn't everything?.
For the last day of our trip thru the Delta we started at the floating market which as this name suggests is a market on the river where everybody turns up in boats.
And then we went and saw a rice noodles factory and
rice processing factory and a local market, the local market had amazing seafood for sale, huge tiger prawns and so many different types of fish, i wish we were in self catering as we would have loved to have brought some and cooked our own.
The only thing at the market we didn't really like was the frogs which are tied together in live bunches.
That was sadly the end of our river journey on the Mekong it was back to the buses, not sure of how long it took us from Can Tho to HCMC as i no longer have a watch but it took a while and by the time we got off the bus it was well dark.
We plan to stay here 3-4 nights then we will head to the coast for another few days on the beach and then we will continue up towards Hanoi.
More to come......
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Kiers
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DInner????
I think i would rather eat the tin man than the frogs - although lunch looked very quaint (is that spelt correctly?) Keep smiling, The world is your lobster!! Keep us posted, and Take it sleezy x x x x