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Saz and Dave's travels
Today was the first of a two day organised trip to the Mekong Delta. Leaving the hotel at 7.45 am, we got on a bus with a load of other people and travelled for two hours to Cai Be, passing loads of rice fields on the way. On the bus, our guide Mr Binh got up and made a hilarious introduction 'good morning everybody, now I am going to say good morning'! When we got to Cai Be we split onto 2 boats to go and visit the Cai Be floating market. It was mad at the market - loads of boats packed with one specific thing like tomatoes or pinapples, people busy buying and bartering and hopping from one boat to the other. The drivers must be so skilled not to crash!
Our next stop was Tan Phong island, referred to as Green Pearl by the locals owing to its many beautiful canals. Here we got a free lunch (free yeah!) which consisted of noodles with tofu and pork, watery veg soup and fresh fruit. It was lovely on the island - really peaceful with orchards and lots of greenery.
After getting some more boats along the Mekong including one rowed by two ancient looking women we got to see the locals making coconut candy from fresh coconuts and Dave felt brave and had his picture taken with a python around his neck! We also tried some yummy tea made with fresh honey from loads of bees that kept buzzing round us and some shots of rice wine (a bit gross!). We were entertained by a couple of locals singing some strange songs in Vietnamese accompanied by 2 old men one on guitar and one on some strange form of violin! Not really music to our ears but it was entertaining!
After a further 2 1/2 hours on the bus we got to Can Tho City where we booked into a really simple hotel then went out for tea. Zach and Sok (from the Cambodia trip) ordered snake or 'serpent' and we all had a try - it's a bit like duck and quite tasty. The rest of us were a bit unadventurous and got pizzas. I got lemon juice which is really good here - they give you fresh lemon or lime to squeeze in, loads of ice and some syrupy liquid to sweeten as you want, it's great! Later we played cards and had a drink then went back to the hotel passing a huge rat on a pile of rubbish on the street on our way! Despite there being a rat though Can Tho City seems really nice, right on the edge of the Mekong river with lots of nice restaurants and bars and a lot lot quieter than Saigon which is nice!
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