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So after spending a couple of days in Ho Chi Minh City, I could no longer stand the noise, the humidity and the traffic, so I got the hell out of Dodge and went on a 2 day Mekong Delta tour. The motivation was two fold - first the tour came highly recommended by the British girl I met in Saigon a couple of days ago, and second, I really miss the beach and there is this idyllic island right off the coast close to the Mekong Delta called Phu Quoc, which is supposed to be like Phuket in Thailand before it was discovered.
So on the first day, we took a bus to My Tho, got in a boat and after cruising for a bit, we came to a bee farm and a coconut candy factory. Even the bees up here are friendly - they don't sting and don't mind if you hold them, hence the photos of everyone sticking their fingers into the bee hive. After we took a small dingy ride through some narrow canals, followed by some tropical fruit and some native music and singing.
No offense to the ancient art of Vietnamese music, but it just
sounded horrible. Overall, I was really disappointed with the first day. It might have been better if it wasn't 38 degrees C and 90 percent humidity.
I started thing that I should have flown straight to the island instead of taking the tour. Thankfully it was saved by the second day. We spend the night in Can Tho, the biggest city in the Delta, which has a nice feel to it with quite lovely riverside. Then in the morning, we got into a boat and went to a floating market. This is basically a wholesale market where farmers bring their produce in the small boats, sell it to the middle man in the big boats and then by whatever they need. Then we went to another smaller market, the intention being is just to introduce us to the life on the river. Between people going to and from market, fisherman, people living on the banks of the river, it was just a really nice and relaxing trip and I really enjoyed it. The even have floating gas stations, cargo barges and all kinds of boats from tiny top really big ones.
I gotta tell you how friendly the people are
up here. Every single kid we passed on the river was waiving to us. Even in the towns most people say hello. Some people just come up and want to just talk to you - they are learning English and want to practice. I was also walking by the riverside, and a bunch of people were having a BBQ right there and the old guy at the table grabbed my arm and invited me to have dinner with them! That never happened to me anywhere in all my travels.
Anyways, I after ridding the boat for a couple of hours, we came to rice noodle making factory and showed us every step of production. Rice noodle soup is a Vietnamese staple, along with spring rolls.
A couple of words about Vietnamese cuisine. It's really bland in comparison to Thai food. I like the beef noodle soup though, I have it every day. The rest of the dishes are kind of bland and boring. The beer here is great. They even have this draft beer that is sold in big plastic jugs. It's super cheap - has to be the cheapest beer in the world - and is made fresh every
day. I am kind of scared of trying it though, since no one really supervises the production and according to the book the conditions it is made in are not necessarily hygienic.
Anyways, after the boat ride, most people went to Cambodia since it's close, and I went by a local bus to Rach Gia, where I will spend the night and catch the morning ferry to the island. A word about local buses. There aren't many cars up here - most people use a motor bike and apparently the farmers are not used to A/C, so it's a common occurrence for them to get sick on the buses. Of course, we got lucky and we had a puker on our bus too. The old women was really considerate though and tried to do it quietly and not disturb anyone. She never even asked for the bus to pull over.
So we made it to Rach Gia. Apparently this place doesn't see a lot of foreigners - the hotel has no map, the people working at the hotel don't really speak English, in fact I walked around a bit through town, and didn't see another tourist. I might be staying
in the wrong part of town or something. The town also has no street signs, so even if I had a map it would kind be useless 😊 Anyways, it's kind of cool. I went to get food at the local street food place, had to point and gesticulate since they don't really speak English either. Managed to get Pho Bo - beef noodle soup and beers. The soup was delicious. So was the beer. I was a hit at the place - I shaved my head in Saigon since it was so hot - I don't know why but the locals love it 😊 So I was watching the locals go about their business, they were all watching me. Anyways, the town is really sleepy and quiet, I tried to find a bar and kind of gave up after a while - I have to get up early anyways to catch the ferry. So I was walking by a farmers market on the way back to the hotel where I spotted my favorite fruit up here - Rambutan. It's a hairy fruit related to Lychee. It is delirious.
So I got a whole sack for less than a buck.
Makes a nice snack 😊
Anyways, I will be laying on a beach tomorrow again. Woooohoooo!
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richie
non-member comment
nice head
Boy O Boy the sun must be bouncing off the head of your's. How is the Delta Water Quality? Is it just muddy or Polluted. It looks like alot of people ware something around their faces.