Weekend in Ho Chi Minh 2

The following day we had booked with Tham again, this time to show us the Mekong Delta. This is the area of Vietnam that she had grown up in she told us and was pleased to plan a day cruising around, seeing the local way of life and taste some of the foods. We joined our boat at Cai Be.

                        It was very relaxing just sitting back and watching the local life pass by.

 Normally this stretch of the river is full of floating markets, due to Tet they were only a few but still interesting to see 

We stopped to see how some of the local products are made

                      Rice wine still, using coconut husks for fuel. Rice wine can be used as the alcohol for snake and scorpion wine, which was bottled here too.

                                                             
                                                       Making coconut toffee

Making rice papers that will be used for the delicious Vietnamese rolls, the rice husks are used to fuel this stove

I was allowed to have a 'go', it was quite tricky to get a really thin paper without it tearing but I was quite pleased with my results, although I did of course get some help from the expert

Making 'pop rice' which is then flavoured with chocolate, caramel or salt and formed into bars 

The pet python, think this one grew too large to fit into a bottle of 'snake wine'.

  We got back on our boat and carried on down river

to our next stop for refreshments and some music and dancing. I loved the tea cosy-a coconut husk

                                                                                   NT being taught how to play a single stringed instrument, using a bamboo pick to pluck the string and buffalo horn to make it vibrate

There were some lovely flowers in the garden-this one possibly a Gerbera

                                                    this one a gorgeous Torch Ginger

                                             and this we were told was Apricot blossom

          Then back in the boat to our lunch stop, passing some local fishermen collecting snails

At first sight our lunch stop didn't look that appealing, although there was no denying that it's 'orchard' was very productive-pineapples, bananas, guava, jackfruit, milk apple to name a few

The central dish was Elephants Ear Fish served propped up. The meat was put on a rice paper roll with cucumber, herbs, lettuce and then rolled up dipped in home made sweet chilli sauce and was delicious

                                                   Time for a post lunch snooze

 After a rest we then transferred to a small sampan rowed by a lovely lady who looked quite elderly but was obviously still very strong and ably rowed us through some tiny channels and eventually back to our bigger boat

 We were given the typical Vietnamese conical woven hats to wear, they were very welcome in the scorching sun as were the fresh coconuts opened for us to drink the cool, fresh milk

                                                          Tham helped row for a while

                   Life again passed by us-first a family carrying a lion costume on their moped

                      Then an elegant young woman pushing her bike over a narrow bridge

 Soon we were back at the boat terminal and headed back to the city with it's constant stream of motor bikes carrying whole families and their wares

 The following day we had a few hours before flying back to Singapore. We headed to the centre and came across another flower festival close to the towering Bitexco Financial Tower and it's CD like helipad on the 52nd floor

 One display celebrates the new underground system that is scheduled to open this year in HCMC, I think it will be really welcomed if it helps take some of the traffic off the streets.

 Our last stop was the Ben Thanth Market where tourists and locals buy everything from fruit and veg, meat and fish, flowers and handbags, watches and sweets.

Fish seller

Shoe shine anyone?

 We had had 4 busy days in this city and the surrounding area. It had been fascinating, sometimes noisy and tiring, sometimes relaxing, we had eaten delicious food, seen some wonderful sights and some thought provoking displays in HCMC/ Saigon. As a first taste of Vietnam it has encouraged us to see more another time.