We flew into Ho Chi Minh City, the old Saigon. From there a taxi to the bus station, then on to Can Tho, Vietnam. Can Tho is deep into the Mekong Delta. It sits next to the Song Hau river, a tributary of the Mekong River. It used to take all day, or more, to get from Ho Chi Minh to Can Tho because they didn't have any bridges over the rivers and canals of the Delta. They used ferries...even if the water way was only 60-80 feet across. There was no other way. As you can see below, they still use a ferry for foot, bike, or scooter traffic...There are bigger ferries that might hold a car or two. It doesn't cost much and is faster then going out of your way to take the bridge.
I've mentioned many times before, they drive "hell bent for leather" anywhere in Vietnam. Our bus driver out of Ho Chin Minh kept one foot on the gas and one hand on the horn for most of the way to Can Tho, a 3 1/2 drive...when he wanted to accelerate it was necessary to start the process with the horn. Funny. Drivers don't use their horn in Laos or Cambodia and very little in Thailand. But Vietnam?, constant beeps and honks all the time...it's in their DNA, and a way to tell everybody where they are and they're coming through!
We arrived in Can Tho in the evening and happened to walk into the restaurant at Victoria Can Tho, our hotel....it happened to be rated number 1 on Trip Advisor's places to eat in Can Tho. Lucky.
The following morning we went on a tour to the wholesale floating market. Many boats large and small. The boats generally sell to the folks from the restaurants and markets but they'll also sell to tourists. Often, they string up whatever they're selling on a long pole that waves in the wind like a flag...then hand any product sales off on another pole. A fun experience to watch.
Then we were on to a garden tour and shown different types of flowers and fruit trees. We sampled unusual kinds of fruit...rambutan, longan, dragon fruit, jack fruit, sapodilla, durian, all delicious. The Mekong Delta grows more fruit than anywhere in SE Asia. It's different and delicious.
We did not eat lunch there, but saw the chef's cooking chicken, frog, sausage, and snake. The frog's skin is often pulled off from the neck to the hips to show the meat, (the frogs are alive when that's done)...ow!...The snake was put on the grill alive...double ow!....The people of this region of the world don't have much sensitivity or sympathy for what they eat. At home, PETA, would be protesting the frog or snakes treatment with signs like, "Friends of Frogs, Stop the torture" or "We snivel over snakes!." Here in SE Asia, they'd probably throw those folks in a holding tank long enough to get a good mental health evaluation.
Below...how to make rice noodles.
The above picture is rice that has been made into flour, then spread over a flat iron and cooked, then dried. After it dries, into a shredder in goes. From there the noodles are folded for packaging.
One unfortunate thing about the whole of SE Asia is the trash, and the area of Can Tho is no different. It's everywhere. Along the river, in the lakes, along the road, in the back yard. People don't seem to mind. In the NW we recycle much of what we identify as trash. I think that here the recycling consists of which window to throw it out of. There are resorts that are leading the way to "zero-waste" and the people seem to take care of the trash further away from the city...but they have a very long way to go. In Bangkok, it looks the same way during the day, but most of the trash is bagged up and by the morning...it's gone. But everywhere else...there it is.
Lastly, in southern Vietnam, people are friendly and generally helpful. We were lost a couple of times, and someone always came to us to help or give instructions. They didn't want anything in return. They just offered a little help and a smile.
Ed out.
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