Up early – awesome breakfast – eggs sunny side up and great french bread, coffee (Vietnamese – that’s an eye opener!), bananas and orange juice. Tour guide picks us up at the appointed 7:30 am and we walk down our alley, pick up another girl on the way, then hop on the bus. We drive a little ways, picking up passengers – all backpackers with those huge hiking packs. It’s wild watching the traffic and the way the driver weaves through the scooters and intersections.
After 30 minutes of driving around town picking up people, we end up almost back where we started and then suddenly our tour guide tells us to leave the bus. Huh? We’re getting on a different bus? Really? Ok – so we’re kicked off bus one, and go to get on bus two – but we don’t have the requisite pink slip that everyone else has. We booked through our hotel and we’ve got nothing but this little white slip of paper that the guide told us not to lose. Just says the hotel name and our 2 day tour. Oh and A/C for the hotel for that evening! We’re not going 2 hours south of here without A/C, nosiree bob!
After the little tussle getting on the bus we’re finally situated – with what appears to be a bunch of day trippers. This is an adventure….we keep reminding ourselves! Another 10 minutes or so of driving around and we stop again – this time – our original bus pulls up next to us to load people too. Crazy! Among the people being loaded is a girl with a 4 month old. Oh – that’s cruel – in this heat? With the bugs in the Mekong…..she’s with what appears to be her parents and significant other, but still….come on!
Well, at least she’s not on our bus!
So – we’re off – to where ever we are going. The tour guide gives us a good run down of our day then lets us “sleep or relax” for the 3 hour ride. And it is all of 3 hours – with one rest stop where we buy water. The ride gives us a good view of the city an the outskirts, which tend to blend into each other. Once out of Saigon proper, you lose the high rises, but you keep the scooters and little shops and town/village life on the the side of the roads. As we head further into the rural areas, we pass rice and crop fields – most with graves placed willy nilly about the property. They are all above ground and brightly painted, but few are in a grouping you would call a cemetery. They seem to just be plopped down in the middle of any field. I’m sure there is some rhyme and reason, we’re just not privy to it. (pix from the bus – just for an idea)
Long ride, but it’s all interesting. We had brought our phone/books along, and never even read them. We were too busy watching the countryside of Vietnam slide by our picture window.
We arrive in Cai Be and pick up our boat for the sail down the Mekong to see the floating market. The boat ride is great – the breeze is refreshing (thankfully – because it’s hot!). We pass little houses and boats and just incredible country/river life.
We reach Cai be and sail around the market. It’s a small market of ships selling produce. The activity and number of boats change daily as they stock and deplete their supplies. The market is not for tourists, only for locals, with a minimum purchase of 10KG. Each boat “promotes” its wares by sticking whatever they are selling onto tall sticks at the front of the boat – so as you sail around them, you can easily see what they are selling.
Next up on our tour is the coconut candy/popped rice/honey bee factory (or really gift shop, but still…). The coconut candy is really, really good (it’s like taffy), and I’m sure really cheap. But it’s also really, really hard on our teeth and the last thing Ed or I need is to pull an implant or crown off because of some gooey taffy. Popped rice is the same way – it’s basically rice krispies treats but with caramel instead of marshmallow. Again. Great. But way too gooey for our teeth. Although we did manage to get a great video of how they pop the rice in the hot sand (http://youtu.be/BfxuVzXqU5U) - then pictures of them mixing it with the caramel and rolling it out.
Next up – the rice wine. I’m not even going there – Ed tries it – but didn’t really comment! Then its on to the honey bee farm where our guide shows us the honey bee hive and we all get to have honey tee – which was really very good. We could also purchase the honey and royal honey jelly – or some such ointment that was said to cure just about everything!
Back on the boat, we sail past Cai be market and out into the off shoots and tributaries of the Mekong, and into the depth of the Minh Island – a large island in the Mekong river where we’ll have lunch. It’s beautiful back here, little houses and villages and long stretches of nothing but river and foliage. You can’t hardly imagine the history when it’s this peaceful here.
At lunch, we are told we will only get a small amount of rice, a small amount of chicken and a small amount of 
vegetables. However, if we want to try the local specialty of fried fish we can pay extra for that. Well, we’re all in for crispy (or as one of our guides pronounces it: crippy) fish! So we order the Elephant Ear fish – which the menu calls “Dipped Fried”.
Whatever the translation – it’s awesome!
The presentation is a 10! And then the ladies come over and teach us how to make spring rolls with it, wrapping the greens, bean sprouts and crippy fish into the rice paper. Totally great! The greens are a mixture of lettuce of some sort and fresh mint which is just incredible. I’m not a mint person – but this stuff is just the perfect accompaniment to these dishes.
After we finish our crippy fish, and our small portions of chicken and veggies and rice – we have an hour and a half to relax. We can either hang out there in the hammocks (ubiquitous in Vietnam) or ride bikes into the village and around the lanes. You can guess our choice!
Pedaling around the little lanes, waving to all the people, getting beeped at by scooters. Totally fun way to work off a little lunch!
As we are leaving, we get to meet the pet Boa – and some more adventurous of us actually hold the thing. He’s huge! And heavy, 30 kg.
Then we’re off for our row boat ride. Fun! These guys and gals who are our “rowers” are incredible. What it takes to do this – the oars are crossed, so the pulling motion is totally different than what you’d normally do in a row boat. Amazing – and totally fun too! Our boat mate – Priscilla from France – tried her hand at rowing. She looks good, but wasn’t actually so good at implementation!
We transfer to a motor boat and head back to the Mekong for a 30 minute ride to Vin Tau – where we will wander the market – buy Ed new flip flops (because he had a blow out..yeah…stepped on a pop top….), stop for a beer at a cafe on the water, a coke at a little cafe in a garden – where we watch families arrive on the scooters – with little chairs/stools on the scooter for the kids to sit! Wild!And then jump in the bus that will take us to Can Tho, our stop for the evening.
The drive to Can Tho takes about an hour and is totally entertaining. We watch the scooters scatter and listen to our bus horn as we make our way south for our night time stop!
Can Tho turns out to be a great town right on the river. The hotel where we are staying is down an alley that has what looks like shops all along it, but they are closed now. We get our room 0- paid $3 extra for A/C – a bargain because it’s HOT – and head up to get organized. Truly great room – large, large bed, TV, fridge. The only oddity – which isn’t really for a backpacker hotel – just a first for us – is the combo bathroom/shower. The shower head is right over the toilet. Hmmm….well…you know…when in Can Tho! Hey – they’ve given us amenities, shampoo, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and this darling little miniature soap bar. Who’s to complain?
We strike out into town to grab some grub and end up in this great little Italian/Euro/Vietnamese place where we have free wi-fi and wine! End up with spring rolls, squid and chicken and cashews. All awesome – and terrible inexpensive.
Sat there for a while eating, drinking, then headed back for the hotel since we had an early morning wake up call! Tomorrow – the biggest floating market in Vietnam. Cool!
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