This morning we had breakfast on the top deck of our floating hotel, then we had to pack up and waited for the motorboat to pick us up for day 3 tour of the cave temple and "cham" village.
The temple in the cave was actually a small cave where a Vietnamese lady nun had mediated for a long time...then the was a long climb up to this temple but it was very well kept, a pond full of carp and turtles which symbolises long life to the Buddhists.
The next place was really intresting as we were taken to a Cham ethnic village..they all look like malays , the women wearing the "baju Kurungs"(long Malay dresses) and the mean in sarongs Malay shirt and songkok(hat) or the white skull cap the "haji's " wear..they spoke a kind of Malay dialect too. we were wondering why they were all dressed up that day in their finest clothes ,then we were told it was the first day of the Muslim new year 'hari raya"the village looks like a typical malay kampung( village) on stilts over the water, on the main road they had a Mosque as well, we went into the mosque compound to take some pictures with the people there..My wishes of "Asalamuailaikum"(peace be upon you) was happily responded back by all ..we stopped by a weaving shop where there was a Cham lady demonstrating their traditional way of weaving sarongs and other materials,here I bought my good friend Nanang a Muslim skull cap , the lady of the shop then brought out new year cakes for us to sample...some of the cakes were similar to our Chinese new year cakes,Then it was back to the floating hotel to collect our bags and board a slow boat back to Can Tho city where we were served lunch on board...fried egg noodles with a pork chop and veggies..it took 2 hours to get to Can Tho city by boat from there it was a long bus ride of 6 hours to Saigon...we got back to Saigon that evening at 7 ;30 pm I was so tired .
Thursday, October 2, 2008
30 Sept Can Tho city
This morning we were picked up at the hotel at 7 am, there was a free breakfast of french baguette and omelet. we walked to the Can Tho pier to board a motor boat to take us to the floating wholesale fruit and veggies market .It was quite sunny that day and we were in a boat with no roof,we saw many boats of all sizes packed to the brim with all kinds of veggies and fruits , to advertise what their boat sold, they hang all the types of veggies and fruit on a tall bamboo pole on the roof of their boat so when the other boats passes by they know what they are selling, we were told that these boats bring their veggies and fruits from all parts of Vietnam and they stay in this region till all their veggies are sold ,then they go back and bring more...so it was usual to see the whole family living on their boat with children on them as well.
The next stop was a noodle making factory .they still used the traditional method of soaking rice in water and then making a thick kind of rice flour soup then it was pour into a steamer and separate thinly and then steamed for a few mins then it was taken out ..laid on bamboo mats and dried in the sun ,later it will be collected and then cut into strips of noodles, but this was only a family business so it does not produce the majority of the noodles in Vietnam but only for the local consumption.Then it was on to the next place...A rice Mill, where we saw how rice was husked by machine, then polished the tour ended at the same pier we walked to this morning and we were brought to a restaurant called " Nam Bo' food was good I had a seafood fried rice and some Vietnamese spring roll., Lou had pumpkin flower soup and Cantonese fried rice,we were told that our 3 rd tour guide will be picking us up at the hotel at 3;15 pm so I had some time to look around the market I bought a T shirt and a pair of shorts then met Lou and we went for coffee at the Pier's restaurant.
The bus was late picking us us as they were caught in a traffic jam at the ferry terminal, then we drove 4 hours to the city of "Chau Doc" the last city before Cambodia, we were put up in a floating hotel in the middle of the Mekong river, dinner was not included but we had to eat at the hotel there was no choice as we were stuck on this floating hotel.I had fried chicken Maryland and tomato rice ,Lou had fresh Vietnamese spring roll and fried rice we both had a plate of tropical fruits for dessert. we had to go to sleep early as the next day was a very long day we had to do the 3 rd day tour and then drive all the way back to Saigon.
The next stop was a noodle making factory .they still used the traditional method of soaking rice in water and then making a thick kind of rice flour soup then it was pour into a steamer and separate thinly and then steamed for a few mins then it was taken out ..laid on bamboo mats and dried in the sun ,later it will be collected and then cut into strips of noodles, but this was only a family business so it does not produce the majority of the noodles in Vietnam but only for the local consumption.Then it was on to the next place...A rice Mill, where we saw how rice was husked by machine, then polished the tour ended at the same pier we walked to this morning and we were brought to a restaurant called " Nam Bo' food was good I had a seafood fried rice and some Vietnamese spring roll., Lou had pumpkin flower soup and Cantonese fried rice,we were told that our 3 rd tour guide will be picking us up at the hotel at 3;15 pm so I had some time to look around the market I bought a T shirt and a pair of shorts then met Lou and we went for coffee at the Pier's restaurant.
The bus was late picking us us as they were caught in a traffic jam at the ferry terminal, then we drove 4 hours to the city of "Chau Doc" the last city before Cambodia, we were put up in a floating hotel in the middle of the Mekong river, dinner was not included but we had to eat at the hotel there was no choice as we were stuck on this floating hotel.I had fried chicken Maryland and tomato rice ,Lou had fresh Vietnamese spring roll and fried rice we both had a plate of tropical fruits for dessert. we had to go to sleep early as the next day was a very long day we had to do the 3 rd day tour and then drive all the way back to Saigon.
29 Sept 3 days tour of Mekong Delta
We were picked up outside our hotel at 7;30 am and we joined a 3 days tour of the Mekong delta,the cost $37 us dollars plus $5 dollars extra for single room by myself.On our tour bus were 4 Chinese girls and 1 Chinese guy from Guangzhou ,3 singaporean girls ,1 dutch guy and us, in fact the dutch guy was the odd one out as he was the only Caucasian.our first stop was the bonsai gardens where we were to use the toilets for 10 mins then we continue to the city of "My Tho"
We noticed that the Mekong delta region is a very prosperous region, everywhere we look there was houses on both sides of the Highway 1, leading into the Mekong delta.when we got to the city of My tho we were taken by boat to an Island to see a coconut candy factory,they still use traditional methods to make this candy it was quite delicious so I bought 2 packets ,1 regular and 1 with "pandan' flavor they also had a type of biscuits that is very similar to our Malaysian Chinese new year cakes "kueh ka pek".
Then it was Lunch, it was included in our first day tour but it was only a plate of rice 1 piece of pork chop and some veggies. after that we were taken to a fruit farm where we were given sample as of all different kinds of topical fruits like..sugar bananas,Dragon fruit,pineapples and guava, we were also entertained by some Vietnamese singers for 10 mins after that we went on a boat ride on a flat bottom boat paddled by 2 Vietnamese ladies to meet our bigger motor boat,at 2 pm our tour ended and we were passed on to another tour guide for the 2 nd day tour we had to wait 1 hour or longer till we were picked up by another bus going to the city of "Can Tho' where we will start our 2 nd day tour
In the city of Can Tho we were put up in a small mini hotel , clean room cold air con.,situated in a small alley way with stalls selling all kinds of hardware. Dinner was at a Vietnamese Chinese restaurant by the Mekong river Lou could read the menu so he ordered ,stir fried frog legs with lemon grass,a soup and I ordered a goat curry, it was quite delicious. after dinner we walked by some ladies selling sweet sticky rice in a kind of pancake so we bought 1 each it was very nice then it was bed time coz it was a long day
We noticed that the Mekong delta region is a very prosperous region, everywhere we look there was houses on both sides of the Highway 1, leading into the Mekong delta.when we got to the city of My tho we were taken by boat to an Island to see a coconut candy factory,they still use traditional methods to make this candy it was quite delicious so I bought 2 packets ,1 regular and 1 with "pandan' flavor they also had a type of biscuits that is very similar to our Malaysian Chinese new year cakes "kueh ka pek".
Then it was Lunch, it was included in our first day tour but it was only a plate of rice 1 piece of pork chop and some veggies. after that we were taken to a fruit farm where we were given sample as of all different kinds of topical fruits like..sugar bananas,Dragon fruit,pineapples and guava, we were also entertained by some Vietnamese singers for 10 mins after that we went on a boat ride on a flat bottom boat paddled by 2 Vietnamese ladies to meet our bigger motor boat,at 2 pm our tour ended and we were passed on to another tour guide for the 2 nd day tour we had to wait 1 hour or longer till we were picked up by another bus going to the city of "Can Tho' where we will start our 2 nd day tour
In the city of Can Tho we were put up in a small mini hotel , clean room cold air con.,situated in a small alley way with stalls selling all kinds of hardware. Dinner was at a Vietnamese Chinese restaurant by the Mekong river Lou could read the menu so he ordered ,stir fried frog legs with lemon grass,a soup and I ordered a goat curry, it was quite delicious. after dinner we walked by some ladies selling sweet sticky rice in a kind of pancake so we bought 1 each it was very nice then it was bed time coz it was a long day
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