Up early and just about make it to the tour office in time. Tea is already here and not pleased that I was late. Ha. We get taken by a guide down the street a short while and on to the bus. A decent bus with AC and pretty good leg room so I'm ok with that. We get on our way and the tour guide talks about the plan, and the times. Of course I take everything he says with a pinch of salt, Vietnam time. After 2.5 hours [told it would be 1.5] we arrive at a port. We get off the bus and follow the guide over to a boat. It is not sunny today, very cloudy, and we even get a nice bit of rain as we are getting on the boat. Brilliant. These will be good photos.
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We get on to the first island and we are to follow the tour guide, so that means no stopping at any little nik nak shops, fine with me, but Tea keeps stopping to look at things and we are falling behind. We are offered to take a seat by the guide and we get offered some honey tea. We have a server that prepares it all for us. It's very sweat, but very nice also, we have a small cup along with some other products made from the honey. A nice wee snack. Then we move on and our guide pulls a python out of a box. That takes me a bit by surprise, along with a few of our group who run away. There is an opportunity to get the python round your shoulders. I am right up there and in the mix. The python is pretty heavy when it is round your neck, but pretty tame, not trying to kill me or anything. A few people get their photos taken and then we are off to another part of the island. Here we get in to a little boat, only holds 4 people, with a woman and man at either end to row. The river is so small and the are that we get on is so congested with boats, they are all smashing in to each other, Vietnamese woman going mad, shouting away. It's great to climb in the boat and we all get a Vietnamese hat to protect us from the sun. As we set of down the river there is a never ending stream of empty boats coming in the opposite direction on the return leg. This is a great slice of Vietnam, boating down a narrow river, Vietnamese hat, bamboo lining the banks, beautiful. We are on the river for a good 15mins before it opens up in to the delta and we get back on to our bigger boat.
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Next island is our stop for lunch. We have a good restaurant and the food is pretty good, much better than some of the tours that I have been on. I get to scramble across a monkey bridge made out of bamboo before back on the boat for the next stop. It's nice having the day broken up like this, feels like I am achieving a lot.
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Next island, and we are taken to a restaurant where we get a selection of fruit and some tea. We get treated to some traditional singing while we eat. Can't say I'm the biggest fan, but I listen anyway. It's nice to get some fresh fruit, then is is on to a coconut factory. Where we get to see how the take the coconut and produce the sweets. When I say factory, it is more of a shack, but it's where it happens none the less. Then a chance to try some snake wine. Why not? To be honest it tastes just like rice wine, harsh and strong. Out the back of the factory and on to a horse drawn cart that leads us back to the boat and on to the next place.
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We are then taken back to the port and it is back on the bus. The plan now is to head to Can Tho where we will be staying for the night. We stop in My Tho, so people doing the one day trip can change bus. There is some issuer because we are ere for hours. By the end of it, there are rucksacks filled up the gangway and a girl sitting on a plastic seat in the middle. Eventually we start moving after what has seemed like an eternity and we get to Can Tho at about 8. Just enough time to have an explore, find somewhere nice and cheap to eat on the riverside and check out the night market before bed. Breakfast is at 6 tomorrow, great!