Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh Vietnam - Stop #7 Floating Markets and Busy City

Another long bus ride led us into Vietnam - very quickly as we were quite near the border being in Kampot.  No one spoke much English during this process, so at times it was confusing.

As soon as we got to the Vietnam border we gave a tour guide our passports and we waited. Our bus started to drive away and no one had any idea what was going on and where we were going without our passport! No worry though, we got our passports and everything sorted out and we were on our way to the big city!

We were welcomed shortly after the border onto a new bus - a Sleeping Bus!!! This was our first experience on a sleeping bus and we were pleasantly surprised.

Finally some leg room and a recliner seat to ease the economy cramps - we even got small pillows and a blanket.   Very much needed as it was a long trek to the very busy city of Ho Chi Minh.





At multiple stops along the busy roads, vendors entered the bus and tried to sell their snacks to anyone willing.  We were pretty hungry so we tried out a few new things.
 

Corn on the cob and a Rice/Chilli/Fish cake

Arriving in Ho Chi Minh we stayed at Ngoc Thuan Guesthouse, which was pretty basic but a nice spot down an alley, away from the hustle and bustle.

 The next day we explored the city a little bit, did some work outs in the street,

went to the Ben Than Market and bought some souvenirs (a harmonica so we can play some tunes during our adventures),

and had our first experience at a post office overseas.

It was slightly chaotic, with no real direction on what we needed to do. So, we just grabbed a box and started packing all of our stuff in it and taping it up. Then a man informed us that we couldn’t do that just yet and pointing us in another direction, again making it somewhat unclear what the hell we were supposed to do. But, of course, eventually we figured it out and shipped our big box full of stuff home for only $40 USD.

After our first day in this traffic filled madness it was already time to get out.

We wanted to see what the local life around the Mekong Delta was like a little bit farther south.  We were told the best way to do this was through a tour as there weren't many accommodations around the area for us aliens.  So another tour is what we decided on. 

We chose a tour that seemed to be the most rewarding and authentic in the way that it was described.  It included visiting minority villages, a crocodile farm, a home stay on the river, a rowboat ride through the small canals, a horseback ride through a local town and a floating villages fish farm among other great things.

3 Day Mekong Delta Tour

The Mekong Delta journey started with a 2 hour bus ride to Ben Tre city/town, and from here we hopped on a boat down and across the massive Mekong river.

Our first stop was to Tortoise Island to experience how Coconut candy is made and do some sampling of course.  The coconut cookies were the best!

Entrance to Coconut Candy workshop

First they break open the coconuts with a mallet.

then they squeeze all of the milk out of the coconuts by mixing water with coconut flesh.

Then cook up the milk with some other secret ingredients.

Once it has cooked and mixed for up to an hour, it is laid out to dry on the tables.



















Then they cut the dried mix into slices.  Which are then folded into pieces of chewy candy.

They also had some big batches of snake wine brewing.

After watching and tasting, we hopped on a horse and buggy for a short ride up the street and back - literally 5 minutes long at most.  Not sure what this was really for or why it was included in the tour - there wasn't much to see down the street and it just seems like a hassle for the horse. But it was still pretty cool we suppose.

 We were then rushed back to the boat to head to the next island across the river.  This island was where we had lunch (typical rice, pork, spring rolls, and soup), checked out a small crocodile farm and got some free time to hang out in the shaded hammocks.  The crocodile farm was simply a small pond with a few crocs cooling off.  You could buy a meat stick to feed the crocodile for a dollar.

We also took a try at the monkey bridge - easypeasy.

That night we slept at a home stay on the river in a local village.  We were excited to get to see what the real local life was like.  We took a bus to the town of Can Tho.

We hopped on a small boat with our host and headed down a smaller portion of the river.


















 Passing by stilt houses and shacks along the banks with people doing dishes and bathing and going about their daily lives.

Of course there was a lot of trash in the river like most of  SE Asia.

Thinking that we would be staying with a family in a small shack on the floor was a large understatement.  We docked beside the fanciest place of all the homes on the river and were shown to our above average room with a private bathroom.



We tried to help out in making dinner for everybody but felt in the way more than anything - though we did get to taste some delicious crab cake treats.












We enjoyed our feast with some people from our tour group that also came to the home stay; the home stay employees sat elsewhere to eat. We had the expectation that we would be cooking and eating with the family members, but it turns out they weren't even family and it was basically just a hotel.





Nevertheless it was a great night with good discussion and a few beers with our new Aussie, German and South African friends.  Our dinner was excellent, there was plenty of food to go around and we learned how to roll our own fresh spring rolls.






The next day we woke up for breakfast and hopped on the boat back in the river again.



















We met up with the bigger boat and the rest of the group + a few, at the intersection with the Mekong.





This time taking us straight into a very busy early morning floating market.

A boat quickly tied on to ours looking to sell some fresh fruit and coffee and drinks.  This took us all by surprise.



Shortly after another boat tied on selling nearly the exact same goods.



 Then another and another.














The real action though was on the bigger boats making the bigger deals.  With people throwing large quantities of food (rice, fruit, vegetables, etc.) between their vessels. These transactions are mostly for restaurants that need to buy in bulk. It was very cool to watch.

The boats selling goods have a long bamboo stick flying high above their boat with a sample of what they are selling.  This was to avoid any confusion or wasted time in asking what was being sold and to provide convenience to the buyers.

Cute little girl for sale...

The floating market was like nothing else we have seen.  It was originally there because there were no roads/bridges connecting these towns together so the river provided a means of doing business with each other. Although there are roads now, they have kept the market for tradition, tourism, and uniqueness.












 Leaving the market section of the river we steered up a small stream to a small rice paper factory.









There they made rice paper and all kinds of meals with it, including Vietnamese pizza.  The process in making the paper was interesting; they first had to use rice powder and liquefy it in preparation for the cooking.






Our guide told us that his mother had been pulled over by the police years ago on her way back from the floating market with bags full of rice powder.  She was imprisoned until they could test it and prove that it was not Heroin.






After the powder is becomes a milky liquid they pour it on the grill like a thin pancake and cook it for only a few seconds.



We got to try a hand at this but were pushed out of the way by the pros as they couldn't bare for one to be messed up.






































Once it is cooked the large round sheet of rice paper is set out to dry.




After dried it can be cut into sections and sold/used for spring rolls and other dishes or shred into rice noodles.

The pizza was basically a fried rice paper with some chili sauce on top, nothing like Italian pizza.

This was the finale of our visit at the rice paper factory and we were back on the Mekong to the next stop, a little honey farm out in the jungle.  We were told how they care for their bees and make honey while sipping on an excellent (but very small) cup of honey tea.

Around the back we got a close look at their beautiful pet Anaconda.  

From here we hopped into small boats and were paddled down a very narrow canal to another village.  This canal was extremely cool as it was shaded by the water coconut trees and felt enclosed and private.




 

 As cool as it was it, it was short lived.  We arrived at the end of the tunnel in a few minutes and were asked for a tip as we exited the small boat.  This is part of the tour we would have liked to enjoy much longer. There were also tons of other tourists being taken down the river, which took away from the authenticity.

 


A short walk down a path brought us to a small restaurant where we tried some local fruits and listened to some Vietnamese folk music.

We also stopped at a fruit orchard off the river bank. We were again welcomed by the challenge of another monkey bridge. 

The orchard was filled with rows and rows of fresh exotic fruits.  They had another monkey bridge over their fish pond here as well.  

Jackfruit

Dragon fruit

Waxapple

Pineapple

Starfruit

Coconut

After seeing all of the different trees and fruits we needed to try some of them.  We bought a mixed fruit platter to share as a snack before getting back into the boat.  Some were very delicious, others not so much.  The fresh mango was definitely the winner.



We stopped for lunch in a busy little town at a designated tourist restaurant.  This restaurant had live snakes, frogs and eel ready to be cooked just for you. 

poor guys

This completed our touring for the day so we docked the boat and hopped onto the Bus to the next city of Chau Doc.  That night we were given a very simple hotel near the market... just to be moved to another one down the street due to some very disrespectful and self centered Finish tourists who insisted on having our room or the whole world would fall apart.  For  making us move, the hotel gave us free beer, water and TWO breakfast meals, an excellent bargain in our minds. 

We grabbed a bite with our Aussie friends while being attacked by millions of flies.  We tried to keep them out of our food but soon came to terms with the fact that we would be getting some extra protein at this meal.

This was a small quiet town so everything closed down fairly early, but before bed we checked out the night market briefly and explored a little bit.

The next day we enjoyed our free breakfasts and hopped back on the bus to another section of the Great Mekong.

A short boat ride got us to a small fish farm in the middle of the river.   It was a couple of hours away so we had time to chat and compare Australian and Canadian lifestyles with our mates. 

fish food

fish thru the grate

There were small fish farms all over the place in this area.  The one we stopped at was said to be built for $100 000 US but once up and running was bringing in $200 000- a damn good investment to have fish living under your house.  

After a brief fish food demonstration we got back into the boat to go to a minority village down the river.  Here we were shown how they weave clothing and bags and explored the village for a little while. 

The houses were all raised about 10 feet from the ground for the flood season when the water gets very high.  In the low season their farm animals and wood stay underneath the home while they sleep upstairs.

Another long bus ride to the Cambodian Border to visit Sam Mountain, which had a beautiful Cave Pagoda way up in the mountains overlooking all of the surroundings.

 

3 lions

We stopped in the same town of Chau Doc for lunch at the same restaurant as the day before.  Having had some not so great food we decided to wander down the street a few steps to a neighbouring restaurant.  


 

 Here the food was half the price, twice the quality and the staff was very friendly.  The lesson here is it always pays to wander a litttttle bit farther.

We also got a tasty little ice cream snack on the street for dessert.







 This basically concluded our 3 day tour since it was such a long journey back to the big city of Saigon.  




One thing we noticed on our way home is the amount of people flying kites. It seems like this is a favoured passtime in Southern Vietnam. Always interesting to see the different shapes and designs flying high in the sky.


  






 Overall, the tour in the Mekong Delta was a great experience but once again you can never expect that things will go the way that you imagine them too.  We expected to have a fairly authentic experience with the locals and experience their way of life but found it to be a well trodden tourist path at each stop.  As fun and interesting as this was we have decided to stay away from tours for a little while and try to do things on our own.


Arriving back in Saigon we checked into the same spot then met up with our good English buddy Alex who we met in Cambodia, with his girlfriend Dani.  We had a quick dinner before having several cheap drinks on the market street. 

We had planned to see some of the city the next day before leaving Saigon but couldn’t get out of bed in time after our late night.  A better idea was to nap until we had to leave on the long bus journey to Dalat.