Mekong Delta

We recently had a week off of school, as it was The King's birthday, Freedom Day, and Worker's Day all in one week! Since we're saving furiously for NZ, we decided that a week away would be a bit too much of a splurge and we had a few errands to run in HCM. Mel ended up getting really sick, so it was lucky that she could rest and try to recover. We did however, finally go down to the Mekong Delta! Our friend Duyen is from a town called My Tho, so we headed down there with her and Michael for the night.

First, we had to find the bus stop, which was burried deep in District 5. Duyen organised tickets on a 'local bus' rather than a tourist bus and this bus company only goes down to the Mekong. It was really nice and clean and pretty spacious, we would definitely recommend using them if you go down to the Mekong. It only took and hour and a half to get to My Tho. We walked to Duyen's house, since it's super close to the bus stop, and then we caught a taxi to drop our bags at our hotel. We then made our way across the street to the dock, where we were meeting our tour guide.

Duyen the ninja! She didn't want to get burnt so she wrapped her jacket around her head.

Duyen organised a private tour for us, rather than being placed on a boat with loads of people. This meant that the four of us and our guide had a boat to ourselves! We made our way across to the first island. Here, we got to try some honey tea and dried banana. When we were finished, we walked down a path to our next stop which was to sample some of the local fruit grown in the Mekong. There was nothing new that we hadn't tried before, but it was a very welcome snack.

Our boat - just for the four of us!

'Yummy' green guava.

After we had eaten our full, we made our way to a little dock to catch a row-boat, which meanders through the palm trees along a skinny tributary. As we got on the boat, we were each handed a Vietnamese hat to don for the boat trip. (Just try not to think how many other heads have been in it before yours!!) There were loads of other people there, so it was a bit of a bun fight, but with some clever angles we managed to get some of the pictures to look like it was just us cruising down the river. The people who row the boats are extremely strong and we were well impressed by them. They sit in such an awkward position but manage to row with ease.

Traffic!!

After our little boat journey, we went to see how coconut candy is made. First, they cut open the coconuts and then scoop out all of the flesh. Next, the flesh is squashed in order to get all of the juice out and to make it a smooth consistency. After that, sugar is added to the coconut and it is churned until it is completely combined. The coconut mixture is then poured into moulds before being cut and then wrapped. The ladies wrapping up the candy were amazingly quick! We took a video of one of the ladies and it's hard to believe that it hasn't been sped up at all. After sampling the candy, we bought some of the plain coconut flavoured ones. There are a couple of flavours and we thought of buying some durian flavoured candy for Mike, but we decided against it. (Mike HATES durian with a passion!) We climbed back on the boat and headed to our next island.

Churning the coconut.

Coconut candy squares.

Phoenix island was rather interesting. There was a man who lived there for years and he didn't eat anything except for coconut. He only drank coconut water and he even showered in coconut water! He lived there with 8 ladies, all of them naked, and he travelled around talking to people about his religion. Apparently he weighed 28kgs and he lived to be about 80!! So anyone wanting to lose weight... eat coconuts exclusively.

A random pool of crocs on the island. You could buy meat to tease / feed them with.

There were loads of beautiful lotus flowers on Phoenix Island.

A hollow ball of rice being cooked.

Group shot

Now change position (nice one Ross)

The tour guide then took us to the next island. It was finally time for lunch and we quickly ordered because we were hungry. We then waited, and waited, and waited for our food. They had forgotten about us! We eventually got our food after almost an hour, and then made our way to the next attraction... a horse drawn cart! The poor horse had to pull 6 of us along behind him, luckily it wasn't for long. We then had a refreshing water-coconut drink before making our way back to the boat. Here another coconut awaited us! Fully hydrated, we made our way back to shore for a rest before dinner. We went to have Michael's favourite Vietnamese dish for dinner, Sa Te (pronounced - satay). Sa Te is like a really rich stew with noodles in it, it was delicious and no photos were taken as we ate it too quickly!

They even cut us a straw holder.

On day two of our Mekong trip, we went to a temple near Duyen's house. Here we saw three huge Budda's, one sitting, one standing, and one lying down. We also walked through a temple that has monks living in it.  It was then time to head back to Ho Chi Minh City. Our trip to the Mekong was a great break from the hustle and bustle of the city - thanks for showing us around Duyen!

The monks were having lunch