Today we embarked on a private overnight tour to the Mekong Delta region, particularly to see the floating markets. Our guide and driver picked us up early from our hotel and we fought the traffic in Ho Chi Minh City on our way out of town.
We made a number of stops on our way to Can Tho, which is the largest city in south Vietnam.
First stop was at a market, where we stopped to see the baby ducks.
That poor squishy ducky. Lyla loved these little guys.
More baby ducks.
Octopus, squid.
I bet if I had offered her $5 she would have eaten it.
A quick note about poor Lyla on this trip. She was a major highlight for everybody and all sort of people would touch her, or grab her. They all just loved her red hair and would rub their hands on it as we walked by. I ended up carrying her through the market, not because she didn't want to walk, but to hold her tight to try and keep people from petting her like a pet. This was the story of the whole trip. She took it like a champ though!
Our next stop was at a furniture factory where they made these fancy cabinets. Pretty much every family owns one. They have this beautiful mother of pearl inlay with fancy designs.
We didn't really love seeing the little kids working in these places. It's tough to have a bright future when they're not in school learning.
Our next stop was at a chili farm. This is where they would start the plants from seeds and grow them until they needed to be transplanted.
The plants are started in these banana leaf sleeves. The ladies sit on their little stools and fill the banana leaves with dirt and seeds until they're ready to move onto the next step.
The girls helped. I love this lady's stylish clothes and traditional hat.
And of course she grabbed Lyla and had to get her own photo with her. That's not awkward, right?
Our next stop was in a little roadside bar where they had pool tables, table football and drinks.
We went on a motorbike tour to see some rice fields and farms.
Al & Lyla and their driver.
Kate was a little nervous.
One last picture of all of us in front of the roadside stand. That was our van in the background.
We stopped by a family farm. These large jugs are where they store their water. They gather water during the rainy season and keep it in these pots for the dry season.
The kitchen.
We fed the goats.
Alison, Kate and our sweet tour guide Hung.
A rice paddy.
Rice grains.
A coconut and lemongrass. Fresh lemongrass is one of the most amazing scents on this earth. My favorite.
We rode our motorbikes to another farm that had water buffalo.
A fresh cane sugar drink. Not our favorite (if you couldn't tell from Kate's face)...
When we got back to the little roadside stand, there was a bunch of boys on lunch break from the nearby school playing pool.
We had our own private meal prepared by the owner of this little stand. We were treated like royalty. Look at all of that food.
Everything was really good, but quite different than we were used to. We were taking Pepto Bismo tablets religiously before every meal. Trying to pre-treat to avoid the inevitable.
Lychee.
Dragon fruit.
Trying her hand a pool before we hit the road again.
Such an incredible place.
Our next adventure was a boat ride through a couple of areas of the Mekong River Delta. We grabbed some cheap ice cream before boarding the boat.
The Mekong River.
Family photo.
We had this whole boat to ourselves.
We stopped on an island where they make these coconut candies and coconut lotions.
We swapped boats for something smaller. Now we were venturing into some of the smaller tributaries.
If our boat driver had started to crack corny jokes, I would have sworn that we were on the Jungle Cruise ride.
This place really was incredible. It felt like we were moving deeper and deeper into the jungle.
By this point I wasn't even sure if we were still on a river.
Ok. Now I was really sure that we were lost.
The boat driver dropped us off at a small dock and we walked through a cemetery. They bury their dead in these vaults above ground. Probably has to do with how much water is everywhere.
I don't even know what this place was, but they had cobra snakes preserved in jars.
And other snakes in cages.
Lyla showed us the way back to the road where our driver picked us up.
One of the many bridges over the river.
It was still a long drive to Can Tho. After about an hour and a half, we stopped at a rest area. They had a huge fish tank with huge fish.
Another part of the rest area.
We made it to Can Tho just as school and work were getting out. Lots of bikes.
Bikes for days!
We got all checked into our hotel. It had a great view of the river.
Dinner at Pizza Hut. Go figure. Poor Kate was not feeling so hot. Jet lag combined with a long day had done her in.
Ho Chi Minh. Time to turn in for the night. Looking back through the photos, it is amazing how much we saw and did today.
Tomorrow we visit the floating markets.
