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Published: August 7th 2007
Wednesday 11th April
Had a lazy day today after our bad day yesterday. We made the decision to spend 2 nights here as we really like the feel of the town. Can Tho is very quiet compared to Saigon and has a very calm feel about it. It is pretty much in the middle of the Mekong Delta and is based upon a large river. We booked a Mekong Delta tour on a small private boat for the next day and planned to spend today doing pretty much nothing.
We went to the tourist office to book our bus for the next afternoon (after our mekong trip) and also to enquire about how we get to the Can Tho Waterpark - we are obviously enjoying Vietnams waterparks! When we were there, we met an american couple who told us that the waterpark was only open on weekends, but you could sneak into the Can Tho Victorian Hotel (5 star) which is close by and use their pool. Outsiders can normally pay $5 usd each to use the pool for the day, but apparently you can just walk in, pretend you are staying there, and use it. Well, why not?
We did, and it was great!
We spent a couple of hours there (we did buy some over priced beer from them, so we didn't fell too guilty) and then headed back for an early dinner.
Thursday 12th April
Today we headed off for our 3 hour mekong trip. We had paid about $8 aussie dollars to have our own small boat to take us up the main river for about 45 minutes to the local floating market, and then to meander down some of the smaller canals. The trip started ok, and the market was interesting. We sat back and had an iced coffee each from a local boat vendor, and then our driver took us into a small canal and pulled up on the banks. From here we got out and walked, and we saw people making rice paper (from start to finish), lots of little pig farms (yum!), and plenty of local produce being grown such as ginger, lemongrass, jackfruits etc. We got back in the boat, but instead of continuing down the smaller canal we were in (which we had seen another boat do) we turned back and started heading down the main
Victoria Hotel
Wasn't it lovely for them to let us use their pool?river again. I wasn't too worried as I just thought we would be going down another one somewhere. After about 10 minutes, our driver said we wouldn't be able to go down the small canals as there was not enough water (????) WHen she said 'Is this ok?' I just said yes. I should have said that it wasn't, as that is what we had paid for, not just to cruise down the big river the the market and back. Anyway, I spent the next 40 minutes or so damn pissed off, but said nothing. I know we didn't pay much, but I would have paid much more had I known this is what they were going to do. The other reason I was so disappointed was that we had our bus booked to take us back to Saigon at 12 o'clock, so we didn't even have time to organise a different trip that would take us down the small canals. Next time I am going to speak my mind and not be so chicken!
On the way back to Saigon, we did get a good look at the canals from the bus windows, so at least we saw
Mekong Trip
What's up babe? something!
Friday 13th April
This morning we went to the War Remnants Museum which documents and displays exhibits of war crimes from the American War (What the Vietnamese justifiably call what we know as the Vietnam War), including having actual bomber planes, bombs etc. It was very interesting, but also quite depressing as there were lots of photos of victims of agent orange, massacres, bombs etc. They also had a couple of 'preserved' babies in large jars that had been born with severe deformities. Obviously we did not take Mia in to see any of the this.
In the afternoon, we headed back to DamSen Waterpark for a bit of a lift. We got there to find that they were doing maintenance on the 4 biggest slides that we had not yet played on! Bummer! Gav was mighty pissed off, as he had been looking forward to going on these, but he soon got over it!
Our last day in Saigon today, before we head up north on the bus to Mui Ne on the coast for a few days, which, we are really looking forward too.
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Liz
non-member comment
Sounds like fun
Hi Shell, Loving your updates! Makes me want to jump on a plane. Great to see you're having a good time. The pics are great too. No news here (of interest anyway!) Liz