Day 4 – Tuesday Dec 10, 2013 – Mekong Delta (My Tho & Ben Tre)

The free breakfast was great and I had the Vietnamese coffee and the beef ramen (which was pho with ramen noodles lol). We were told to be ready for 8:00am for pick up by our Mekong Delta tour guide. He was early by 15 minutes so we were frantically rushing downstairs to checkout. The tour guide walked us to a bus pick up point in front of the An Travel office. He told us to wait here while he picked up some other guests. During the frantic rush from the hotel, I thought I had given him my receipt and now was a little worried in case this isn’t the same tour since we booked from Lac Hong Tours, not An Travel. After about 20 minutes of anxious waiting, we were assigned a bus and saw our tour guide again.

Our first stop was the Mekong Delta rest stop, which was one of the nicest rest stop I’ve ever been to! The garden was very lovely and the gift store and restaurants were welcoming.

Next, we stopped at the Vĩnh Tràng Temple in My Tho. The massive religious statues were beautiful. We only had 20 minutes but I wish we had more time to wander around.

Next we departed the from the My Tho tourist boat port to visit four islands. At the first stop, we saw coconut candy being made. It was tasty but I deferred from buying any after seeing how they use their bare hands to touch each candy to hand wrapped them.

We boarded the boat and moved onto the second stop where we got to ride a small horse carriage and see how people lived on this island.

We ate an inclusive lunch and got to explore around the area. There was an alligator pen area to see and feed. I thought they were fake since they were so still and posed with their mouth opened. Apparently, alligators sleep like that to cool themselves off.

We continued visiting the islands and sampled some honey tea and vietnamese snacks. The tour guide also gave us a photo opportunity holding a python. My dad tried it since his Chinese zodiac is the snake. I hesitated but decided to do it since might be a once in a lifetime opportunity. As a precaution, I moved his head away from my neck to prevent bites or licks. The snake felt slimy but not wet. It was less scaly but rather more slithery and cool.

At our next stop, we tried some local fruits and listened to some traditional Vietnamese music. Shortly after, we went on a wooden banana boat through a small river between coconut plants. It was a unique and serene experience –one of the highlights of Mekong Delta in my opinion.

That was the end of the first day of the tour. We travelled to Can Tho, the largest city in Mekong Delta to spend the night. Our hotel was very basic since the two-day tour was only $25 but it was clean and spacious. We went to a ‘Com Tam” broken rice shop for dinner. It was a local spot since they didn’t have any English menus. Luckily, my mom could read it and ordered a three kind pork rice dish. It was delicious. The pork was a little heavy since it wasn’t lean but still flavourful.

We headed back to the hotel for rest. I was exhausted and ready to crash but I was getting nervous because our Mui Ne hotel wasn’t confirmed yet. Blah, I’ll have to call the agency in the morning.

Day 5 – Wednesday Dec 11, 2013 – Mekong Delta (Can Tho)

We ate a free basic breakfast with a vietnamese coffee and walked from our hotel to the boat port. We departed for the Cai Rang Floating Market. The boat ride was quite long but you get to see the old rundown houses along the river. They were very basic, small and dirty –seeing this made me appreciate the electrical, running water, wifi enabled home I have.

The market was not as loud, big or busy as I expected. All the boats were wooden and quite dingy. Our tour guide told us, most of these people live on their boat. The larger boats are the wholesalers and the smaller boats are vendors. Whatever the boats hangs up on a banana tree stick is what they are selling. If they want to sell their boat, they will hang a coconut leaf to advertise because the leaf symbolized “home”. Naturally, a bunch of boats approached us to buy their goods. There were boats selling drinks, noodles and fruit. A pineapple costs 15,000đ, (about $0.75) and a large mango, 30,000đ (about $1.50).

Our next stop was at a rice noodle production factory. It was very interesting to see since I’m always eating it but never put anything thought into the process of making it. First, the rice is made into a flour. The rice flour is mixed with tapioca flour (50/50 mix) and made into a batter. They steam the batter into large flat sheets circular sheets and let it dry for 24 hours. Once ready, they feed it through a cutting machine and then package it for sale.

Our final sightseeing stop was at a tropical fruit garden where we got to see jackfruit, dragonfruit, starfruit, mango and papaya trees.

We took the boat back to Can Tho and walked back to the hotel. We had about an hour free time for lunch. The lunch I had sucked but the sour fish soup was not bad. I also got some ‘Bánh bò’ which is like a spongy rice cake. It was SO good and only $0.75 for a bag of five pieces. Two of the three had fresh coconut filling. Yum, this is one of my favourite snacks as a kid.

Super freaked out now, because I got an email saying the Mui Ne hotel I wanted to book was full! My phone was running out of minutes/data but managed to call the agency and get their help to find something. We were leaving for Mui Ne tomorrow and I don’t want to have to look for a place when we get there. Props to Tun Travel for texting me some hotel options and good thing I planned for this and made a list of “Karen approved” hotels. One of the options was a 4 star hotel for $70USD, which was more than what I wanted to spend and I wasn’t sure if that was the best place or value but I was running out of time so I confirmed with them. *phew! figured that out and learned a lesson –pre-booking and planning is easier and less stressful for my travel style.

We departed back to Ho Chi Minh City after lunch and arrived around 5:00pm. The tour just dropped us off in front of the bus pick up point and we were to walk back to the hotel by ourselves. Luckily, it was nearby and I remembered the way. Other people were lost because they were picked up from somewhere else. Walking around with luggage always creeps me out in case someone just grabs my bag! Back at the hotel, I had to check my email to make sure the Mui Ne hotel was booked without any issues. I didn’t get an email confirmation so I was nervous. I called up the agency and she told me to check my junk mail… and it was there waiting for me. *phew I finally felt at ease now that the Mui Ne issue was resolved.

I used tripadvisor to find a good restaurant nearby and found a place called ‘Five Oysters’ that serves seafood and Vietnamese cuisine. I order the “Bánh ướt”, a rice noodle with fish sauce and Vietnamese sausage “Chả lụa”. It had a slightly odd sour taste than how my mom makes it but it was still delicious. My parents said that “odd taste” is common and authentic to Vietnam cuisine and cannot be replicated in Canada. My passion fruit juice was so fresh that it had seeds in it. I wasn’t loving the seeds since they aren’t like tapioca bubbles and are more annoying to swallow. Regardless, the juice was very refreshing.

We roamed the backpackers district and shopped around a bit before calling it a night. The streets were lively and filled with foreigners sitting and drinking on the streets. I was ready to pass out around 9:00pm.