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Published: September 30th 2013
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Monday 30th September 2013
Breakfast on top floor of hotel looking out over Can Tho, the rain looks like it has gone away for the morning at least. Caught our $1 taxi to the other hotel where the rest of the group was staying. A short walk to the jetty where we caught a boat to take us to the Cai Rang floating markets.
The markets are a wholesale market and they show what they are selling by tying it to a bamboo pole and having it at the back of the boat. Being on a boat is being a captive audience as there are small boats that pull up alongside you and try and sell you soft drink, coffee, coconuts, bananas or pineapples.
We shared a coconut freshly cut with a couple of straws for 15000 VND ($0.75). The markets were amazing, so much to see and I could have taken photos of peoples faces all day, such character and stories their faces tell. The whole family live on the boat, so washing is hung out, cooking is being done and lives are being led while they float around on the
Mekong river and it's tributaries.
We pulled up alongside one of the boats selling pineapples and hopped on board. For $0.50 they would peal and de-eye a pineapple, cut it in two and leave it on the stick for us to eat like a lollypop, YUM, Cassie would have loved it. What a great experience.
After that we stopped at a small village to visit a family business who make rice noodles. Hugely labour intensive and over hot stoves all day. Wow they knew what they were doing, it was like a well oiled machine. The paste is made from 50% bought tapioca flour and 50% rice paste which they make themselves. after the "pancake' of rice is cooked, about 2-3 minutes, it is taken off and put on a bamboo drying mat and dried in the sun for 4 hours. They are then one by one put through the noodle cutting machine and packaged up into 5 kg packets.
After leaving there we went to a fruit orchid and walked through the jackfruit, dragon fruit, paw paws, mangos, rambutan, durian and pineapple plants. We ended up at a shelter area
where we could buy some of the fruit and have a drink and WC stop (these had toilet paper too). A man was cooking a little BBQ off to the side, smelt great. Phong, our guide, said he was cooking up some rat if we would like to try. Yes you read correctly RAT. Phong had been telling us that the Mekong rats were the cleanest and nicest you could get as they lived in the rice fields and didn't have chemicals etc as opposed to Saigon rats.Well Mark, game for anything, decided he'd try some, I couldn't quite bring myself I must say. So he and few of the others tried a bit and the verdict was rich and the marinade was amazing! Mmmmmm, not sure.
Back on the boat for a 45 min trip back to Can Tho for lunch before heading back on the 4 hour drive to Saigon. The whole city of 10 million people is now called Ho Chi Minh, but it is divided into Quarters (large suburbs) Quarter 1 is the central part and it is still called Saigon, which is where we are staying.
Back to our
hotel from before and they have given us a room upgrade, nice! Had a lovely dinner at Huong Lai restaurant, recommend by Lonely Planet. "their philosophy is simple: Offer delicious Vietnamese cuisine without pretence or the high price by a friendly caring staff of formerly disadvantaged youth." And they delivered, it was lovely.
Back to hotel. Free day tomorrow, so no alarm set and free to wander this amazing city.
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margaret
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I am sooooo enjoying your journey - make my breakfast and eat it as I am reading all about your travels. This is a great idea of yours Robyn. By the time you get back it wont take much to put all of this in a digital scrapbook and have it printed - way to go!!! 'See' you for breakfast tomorrow! Love M PS You talk about the RAT, - it is a true saying, if you didn't know what it was you would have tried it!! The mind does weird things at times!!! LOL Good on ya Mark!