14 April 2010 - Boat trip

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I am just about ready in time for breakfast (which stops at 9). I order fried eggs and bread from the menu and the eggs arrive with two sausages laid across them. Via hand gestures and head shakes I manage to communicate that I do not want sausages. The eggs are taken away and returned, with two dents that are suspiciously sausage-shaped. I am starving though, after only eating rice and salad last night, so eat around the dents and finish off all the bread.

I go off for a walk to the river. There is supposed to be a floating restaurant near the small bridge but after walking for ages in the heat and going past the second small bridge, I feel ready to give up. I carry on for a bit longer as I see another bridge ahead of me and suddenly beyond that, I see the restaurant! It is lunchtime and I am starving so I order vegetable soup and rice. The soup arrives with chunks of meat in it. I explain (in addition to hand gestures and headshakes, I am waving a lump of meat in the waitress’s face) that I do not want meat in my soup. She takes it away and brings back some more soup. I do not know if it’s the same soup but go ahead and spoon some of the veg over my rice. I take a bite and realise that this time, to flavour it, fish has been added. Aaaargh! The soup sits untouched and I eat around the vegetables which means I can’t finish the rice. Aah well, I suppose it’s rice and salad for the rest of the stay.

I want to hire a boat and try and negotiate to lower the price of 150,000 per hour via writing numbers and drawing a picture of a clock on a piece of paper but the guy is not lowering it. There is no way I am going to manage to organise a trip with another tour operator either, with the problems in communication. However, we eventually manage to agree 200,000 for two hours (I wave 200,000 dong in his face and put two fingers up, in the politest fashion of course, to confirm) and the boat trip goes ahead. It is a lovely, relaxed trip and a great way to see how beautiful the river really is. We pass lots of lovely little fishing villages and riverside dwellings (this is more like it ...)

After the trip I pick up some cake and milk and eat that when I get back, then force some rice and salad down.

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