Andre and Wendy: Mekong Delta day 2

After a not great sleep with the super hard bed, roosters thinking 3AM is a good time to start the day, and boats starting to go by at shortly after 3 with their loud engines. But not complaining, another fun day ahead.

Breakfast at 7:30 AM, it was not too elaborate so which was great. We are still full from last night. Some nice fruit, cheese, jam and delicious baguettes. Andre added 2 sunny side up fried eggs, we are good to go.

Duc had the boat loaded up with 4 bikes and we are on our way. Once we reach the open water the wheel is turned over to Andre. He is very happy. Once it gets busier Andre is quick to get out of the captains chair. The boat ride was fantastic, just seeing how day to day life is here. I am afraid what the count is going to be for pictures today. First stop is actually to transfer to a sampon to explore one of the small canals. I really hate the transfers, especially if it is over open water, but I managed with a few helping hand ups and downs, depending the the direction of the transfer.

The small canal was beautiful. Lots of blooming purple water hyacinth. We talked about what how many more generations before littering is stopped, still so much plastic and garbage in the water. I know it is not all from the locals here, but still hard to see construction workers just throw the empty bags into the canal when they are finished with whatever material was stored in them.

Back to the big boat and we next stop to see rice paper being made. This beautiful 86 year old woman gave us a demonstration on how it is made. I have moved on from my XO girl, I am now in love with this 86 year old woman. We had a fantastic visit with this woman and her daughter. We talked about how she was courted by her husband who lived on the other side the river, her children, grand and great grands. They gave us tea, this peanut, ginger , dried bananas and caramel mix that you put between 2 pieces of rice crackers, so yummy. The daughter gave us a tour of the front garden, it is the first time we have seen ginger growing. We also talked a lot about weather in Canada, we showed them our coins from Canada, they were excited to see the beaver. Left them all the different coins we had as a souvenir. It was a lovely visit, I know it is a tourist stop for many, but we really had a special visit with them.

Next the daughter came along with us back to the boat and we find out she is our leader for our bike ride. Duc says they don't trust him to find the way to our next stop, I understand why. We get unloaded and off we go down these narrow paths, over bridges on canals, through a little town and stop for our next stop. This stop is to see donuts being made. Not sure what they are really called, but they were delicious, they tasted like donuts. Again we are served tea with the donuts. We don't spend as much time here. We interrupted lunch, and I think we may have overstayed our allotted time at the last stop.

Off we go again on our bikes, we are making a circle. This time we get off our bikes to walk over a bridge, I'm guessing our leader saw my biking skills and decided best to get off and walk rather then pull me out of the canal. Again slightly out of my comfort zone.

We drop daughter off at her home, wave goodbye, and see the Mom has come out to wave to us off as well. Ok, I am really in love.

Back to our homestead and we have 30 minutes to clear out of our room. Perfect, 30 minutes is plenty of time to take advantage of that outdoor shower. We use the sandals like the ones that have been provided in all hotel rooms so far. Not sure what they are there for, but worked great to walk across the pebbles to the outdoor shower. Not sure that there was hot water, but the cold water shower felt great.

Meet of with Duc and we are off to lunch at the homestead. Lunch was even better than supper last night. Started off with them arriving with a deep fried fish on something that looks like a taco holder. A girl came over, but on gloves and made us these amazing spring rolls with the fish, cucumber, and some greens. We are now educated that you leave the spring roll in the fish sauce for a bit to soften the rice paper. Delicious, yes one more please. Then she takes some of bigger pieces left on the fish and puts them on our plate. Next food starts arriving, chicken in some type of soya sauce base, shrimp soup, stuffed squash flowers, rice. All this is in front of us and she arrives with 2 shrimp and peeled them for us. Oh so yummy everything.

Lunch done and we take the boat to Cai Be. Mr Nam meets us with the car in Cai Be, a quick trip on to Cantho City where we are spending the night tonight. Arrive in the city and I'm already missing the country.

Get checked into our hotel. We have come to the conclusion when you are on a tour the guides think you are incapable of anything, said really in the kindest way possible. The XO girls hovered over us making sure we liked everything we ate, took our arms crossing the street, and I guess treating us like we were their grandparents. Same with Duc checking in today. He made us sit down by front desk, took our passports from us, brought us our key that said 509 and explained we are on the 5th floor. Then got a map printed for us with 2 restaurants he recommends to tourists, there is one street on the water with 3 restaurants total that I think he would have recommended to tourists. I think he will be relieved to see us in the morning that we survived finding our room and did not starve.

Andre wants to venture out to find some beer, I asked him to find me something not beer. A strange look on his face and off he goes. Returns about 15 minutes later with a little bottle of gin and 3 tonics, we are good for 6 drinks.

Stupid us fell for going to one of the tourist restaurants, my meal was OK but I think they forgot the seafood in Andres seafood rice dish. We both worked in the hospitality industry for many years, it took everything for Andre to stay seated when the young waitress was struggling to open a bottle of wine for the couple beside us.

Dinner done and we are off for a little walk. Saturdays the street that runs along the water is closed to cars, I'm sure Duc appreciated that, less likely for us to be hit by a scooter or car, though not entirely impossible. One of the side streets was filled with street food vendors. All the ways to slice and serve a hot dog did not interest me, but the rice that looked like it was already cooked being cooked again in a wok and shaped like a bowl, wow. Reminded my of the yummy crispy bits of rice in a paella. I will be keeping my eye out for this in the future. Walked down to the end of the pedestrian street where they had some pretty light display going. A couple of lit up boats also seem to be giving tours.

Back to the hotel at about 930, writing this end of day then off to bed for our 530 am meet up with Duc in the morning. He will be so relieved to see us alive...

Vietnamese Ice coffee with condensed milk