Mekong Delta
Today we went on our tour to the Mekong Delta with Urban Adventure Tours
. We had booked online a couple of days ago. We met at the Opera House and found 3 other members of our tour, a guy from Queensland and a couple of young girls, friends from Japan and here in Saigon. Our tour leader checked our details and we were taken to a mini bus. With only 7 on the tour there was plenty of room to stretch out and enjoy the views as we drove out of the city.
The countryside is pretty, lovely and green with little houses and villages dotted along the way. Families bury their ancestors on their land as so there was a lot of headstones colouring the fields.
Our first stop was a travelers stop to freshen up and use the bathrooms before we got to the Boat Station. This was a lovely oasis with a beautiful green pond, covered in lotus leaves. Of course there were tourist shops and cold drinks to buy as well.
We came to the boat station and were quickly shown to our boat and settled into our seats to start cruising on the Delta. The day was quite overcast and gloomy, and the water is brown, but it is a vast expanse with many boats on it
. There were quite a few tourist boats, but also fishermen, transport and cargo boats.
Our guide, Than, told us about the River and the variety of agriculture thriving on it. Our first stop was to Unicorn Island where we saw an abundance of fruit trees. We sat to a morning snack of fruit -dragon fruit, pineapple, jackfruit and bananas with some jasmine tea. We were entertained by traditional musicians and singers.
Back onto the boat to our next stop where we saw coconut candy being made. We were not here long, but got to sample the product and buy a packet to take home. It is very chewy and sweet. We walked to our next transport, a motorbike taxi. We sat on the back, with our helmets on, and took off. it felt like we were going very fast as we whipped through the palm leaves along a narrow cement track. We went through a little township where we saw some other tourists being taken along on a horse and cart. I'm glad our tour did the bikes instead. They were a lot of fun and the poor horses didn't look too good.
The bike took us to our lunch stop, where we had honey tea, elephant ear fish, fried rice and spring rolls
. It was all good. Back on the bike and back to the water. Our next mode of transport was a sampan. We donned coolie hats and sat back to enjoy the beautiful, peaceful water with lush, green trees all around. After the frantic motorbike taxi, this was so quiet with only the birds and the paddling of our sampan man. We passed the occasional fisherman, it was a gorgeous little ride.
We got back to our boat and were taken across the Mekong River to the boat station and onto the city again. It was a great tour.
That night we made it to the Ben Than night markets for dinner. The outdoor eating areas are very well organised. We were shown to a seat, given menus and our orders taken. The waiter convinced Jude and I to have the specials -prawns and I thought he said wraps - everything is wrapped here. When our dish came it was prawns - lots of them which were then peeled for us by a lovely young lady - and Crabs. They were also peeled, but they were quite expensive. We paid $25 each, just for the crabs. Luckily they were delicious.
After dinner we set about shopping and bartering our way through he markets. We got some bargains, we got ripped off and we had a lots of fun. The stall holders were friendly and happy to have a bit of a laugh with us.
We got a taxi back home, after a very busy and enjoyable day.
Mekong Delta
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Ho Chi Minh City , Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
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