Day 31, May 19 - Cruising the Mekong Delta

After quite a lot of research both in NZ and during our time in Saigon we opted for a Package tour to take us on the Mekong Delta and then cross the border to Cambodia for VD1,040,000, or around $60 each.

A 7.30am pick up at the Hostel meant another fairly early start for the intrepid foursome.... we'll be coming home for a rest!  Boarded the bus for the 3 hour trip to the Delta and then onto the boat, we have all been really looking forward to this part of the journey.

   A replica of our boat for the journey.

We spent a good couple of hours cruising the main river and tributaries just looking at the sights.  Many people live and make their living either on the river or on the banks.

    A village of Four linked together.

    Living River Style

   Hard at work.

A short stop to see how to pop rice in a wok full of sand and how to make coconut candy.

    Put the rice still in the husks into burning hot sand.

    After popping and sifting through two different size sieves you get popped rice!

Coconut candy is made by slowly stirring coconut milk over a low heat for 1 1/2 hours until it gets toffee like, then allowing to set and wrapping in rice paper.

    No thermostat on this stove!

A few purchases were made to keep the sweet tooths among us happy for a few days, next stop was to see and taste local honey and royal jelly then it was back onto the river.  This part took us along some fairly narrow waterways.  Had to pinch ourselves to say "this is us cruising on the Mekong Delta!"

   Boats of all shapes and sizes and condition......

   A stop off for lunch which had us walking through the beautiful Mekong forest.

After lunch it was back onto the river.

   Getting the family from one side to the other.

   Gorgeous covered boat.

All together spent about three hours cruising the river then those of us in the tour heading to Cambodia boarded a bus bound for Chau Doc.  

   Confirmation that we are on the right path to the all seeing eye.......

On the way a short rest stop at the Alligator farm where Kim "found" a fish on the path and threw it to a VERY large alligator which nearly scared the pants off Les and Kim when it whipped around and snapped at the fish!  It was very securely in its enclosure but we still just about leapt out of our skin!  Luckily the boys weren't nearby to photograph the experience.

   Wouldn't want to argue with these guys!

The bus got us in to Chau Doc around 7pm and there we boarded our floating hotel for the night.

   Beautiful evening to board a floating hotel on the Mekong Delta.

   And a lovely bed to relax in!

Decided to try a local restaurant rather than the one on board and while a couple of dishes were nice the girls selections either didn't arrive or were, to say the least, not edible.  The boys enjoyed a couple of seafood dishes however agreed that in NZ we are spoilt for beautiful fresh seafood so often overseas end up being a bit disappointed even though they look great!

  River "shrimps"

   Whole red snapper.

As Chau Doc goes to sleep at 9.30 it was a short walk to see if we could find a trinket/momento for Johnson (unsuccessfully) then back on board the boat/hotel to check out the breakfast menu for an early start in the morning then into our cabins to try and get some sleep.