Mekong Delta

Again, a trip that wasn't initially planned but recommendations from other travellers convinced me to give it a go. Hannah and I booked onto a 2-day trip.

The Mekong Delta is the region in southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries (I nicked this from Wikipedia - best description I could find). The Mekong runs all the way through south-east asia and it is the same river where the slow boat to Laos took place earlier in my trip.

Day 1: Hannah and I made our way to the travel agency to be picked up. Met a really nice irish couple (Denis & Aoife) and I got chatting to them on the bus journey. After a few hours, we reached the river and boarded the boat to be taken to the first island - ''Tortoise Island''. Fantastic views from the boat. The water itself is pretty dirty but the river is surrounded by traditional stilt houses, coconut trees and lots of other plantlife. We stopped for lunch on the island and met 2 swedes, Hanna & Henrik, who are brother and sister. After lunch, it was back on the boat to the second island, Ben Tre. The views were even better getting here as we had to navigate some pretty narrow canals of water to reach the island.

Once we got to Ben Tre, we saw Coconut Candy being made by a local family business (and all ate far too much - tastes just like butter). Pretty sickly after a while but still nice. We then got to try some Rice Wine, Banana Wine and Snake Wine - all taste like rum except the Banana Wine. Pretty disgusting but we knocked them back anyway. We then had a rowing boat ride along some even narrower creeks to another part of the island where we were treated to some local music and each had the opportunity to hold a massive Python across our shoulders. I used to be quite scared of snakes but have seen so many in Asia (mostly in bottles of Whiskey) that they don't bother me as much now. I manned up, held him twice and was pretty proud of myself. Although the lack of fear was tested when he started moving towards my face at one point! Most of the lads of the trip had a go but a lot of the girls whimped out.

Then it was back to the bus to be taken to our destination for the evening - Can Tho. Hannah and I decided to go for the home-stay option, meaning we would stay with a local family rather than just a hotel. The group got split in half and those of us going to the homestay, including Hanna & Henrik, were taken on another longboat to get there. Our host was Hung, who was the Dad of the family. The home itself was quite big and it didn't really have a homestay feel to it. We were expecting 2/3 people would stay with each family when in fact, we had about 18 people staying with just this one family! Was cool though and we had a really fun evening with them. The kids taught us how to make and fry spring rolls and these fish roll things. Met a nice Belgian couple, 2 girls from the Philippines, Andy (UK) and his Japanese girlfriend Nikki. Had a really good laugh with all them and the family, who continued to bring us copious amounts of rice wine, despite how disgusting most of us were finding it. No-one wanted to let the side down though so we continued downing shots - getting the feeling I would regret it in the morning. The wine was served in clear plastic bags, using a chopstick to filter the amount coming through. A definate art to this technique, which became harder the more we drank.

The evening finished with Hung giving us a demonstration on how the family can get the river water clean enough to drink. He then told us that we would need to be ready by 6am if we wanted to accompany him on a tour of the village. We had the option to stay in bed until 6.45am but most of us agreed we would get up and have a look around, despite the Rice Wines!

Day 2: All up, ready and raring to go.......except Hung, who was about 10 minutes late. Pretty funny. Think he may have had too many rice wines himself, prompting us to give him the nickname "Hung-Over''. Once he had got himself sorted, he took us on a tour of the village, the local market and primary school. At the school, there were kids playing football in the playground at 6.15am! As you know, I love my footy but even I would have had to think twice about that. They seem to like their early morning sport out here.

Back to the home, waiting for breakfast and........'Hung-Over'' has left the bread he just bought back at the market! Really funny, he just wasn't with it at all. The family sorted out some replacement brekkie and we then got back on the boat to go rejoin the others we had parted from yesterday. The main attraction for the day was the Floating Market, which we were all keen to see.

We arrived at the market, rejoined the others and filled them in on the homestay antics. We then started cruising through and it's pretty cool, but not quite as big as I was expecting. All of the trading is from boat to boat and there is nothing fixed for boats to stop at. Being a tourist boat, we were obviously swamped from both sides by people selling fruit, coffee etc. Enjoyed the market - not something you see everyday. We stayed a while and I got some Pineapple, which I'm getting quite addicted to. SO nice and refreshing out here.

After the market, we were taken to another island to visit a fruit orchard, flower garden and bamboo bridge, which we took turns at attempting - pretty easy. Lots of weird tropical fruits being grown - Dragon Fruit is becoming a favourite of mine. We asked our guide for the names of other ones but I'm pretty sure he was just making them up. They were nice though. After this, we were taken to another local family business for a demonstration on how rice noodles and rice paper are made. This was pretty interesting although the noodles are pretty bland when their not part of ''Pho'' (Vietnamese Noodle Soup - also very addictive). Good to see how it's all made considering how widely it is used out here.

Tour finished and it was back on the bus back to Saigon. A great trip with lots of different aspects to it - holding the Python was my highlight. That evening, myself, Hannah, Henrik, Hanna, Denis and Aoife all met up again and went for a meal and drinks in Saigon. A really cool evening and a nice way to sign off my time in Vietnam. Up early in the morning to get the bus to Cambodia.