Vung Tau Day 1

So today we decided to take it easy and just take things at our own pace. We decided to sleep in. We both ended up waking up at 6:45am still...hahha. Headed out to catch the hydrofoil to Vung Tau, a beach town, an hour and a half boat ride from Ho Chi Minh City. Wow, how crazy it is to try to cross the street. I'm starting to get a hang of it. Slow and steady pace and remember that buses/cars don't stop and motorbikes weave around the pedestrians. Oh yah and most intersections don't have traffic lights at all. So we made it in one piece to the hydrofoil station...phew!

Vung Tau is beautiful. We ended up taking a look at the beach first then we did a trek up to the huge Jesus statue.
It's so crazy! I just calculated with Susan how much we spent today. The most expensive item today was the boat ticket which was $10 US. Our hotel is $5 each. I had 2 buns for breakfast and lunch was $1.25, dinner was chicken pho for $1, some water and a pop was 50 cents. Wow, that's only $17.75 of spending today!

Mekong Delta Day 3

Wow, 2 star hotel breakfast too. Very very yummy. Was on the 8th floor with a nice view of Can Tho. We took a boat out early in the morning to Cai Rang to check out the floating market, the biggest floating market in Vietnam. Bought a pineapple off a boat in the market. The sweetest pineapple I've ever eaten. Then we went to the street market. Bought a papaya (delicious!) and a pomelo for snack later. Oh my goodness...so much fruit! So yummy! I've already eaten more fruit on this trip then I normally do in a year. We also got to see a rice paper and noodle making factory. The process is pretty cool. Nothing's wasted. The rice husk is used to fuel the fire and the ashes are sold to people who use ashes as fertilizer.


So we were walking in the park and noticed some kids eating some fried food and I was looking to try to figure out what they had. They saw me looking and gave us each a piece to eat. So nice of the kids. Anyways, we found the stand the kids got the fried goodies from and we ordered a fried spicy ball of something and fried banana. Then we found the dessert store that we had stumbled upon the night before and ordered fruit cocktail again. I've never had anything like it before. There's durian in there and makes the fruit cocktail taste like a milkshake.

After our food adventures in Can Tho it was a 4 hours car ride back to Ho Chi Minh City. Got back into the city and we decided to get a massage at a hotel near our hostel. They were all so busty. What's with the low cut shirts and short skirts? Let's just say I'm almost 100% sure that this place was not legit. Ewwww....gross! Anyways, next time I'm not going to get a massage at a hotel.

Mekong Delta Day 2

Today we spent most of our time in Vinh Long. First we visited the floating market where people sell fruits, veges and even cooked meals. Then we took a stroll around the land market and bought fresh durian for breakfast. Definitely one of the highlights of the day. Also tried soursop for the first time. It's pretty good. For breakfast we had pho bo and a vietnamese bun and coffee in the market.

My favourite part of the day was the 2 hour bike ride through the villages. Biked through rice paddies, past coconut and jackfruit trees. Such a pleasant ride. Interesting to have to share a metre wide path with motorbikes too.

What an amazing hotel we stayed in. To think it's considered a 2 star. Maybe it's the huge contrast from the homestay, but I felt like it was a 4 star hotel. Best sleep I've had during this trip.

Mekong Delta Day 1

Another day starting with a vietnamese ice coffee. It's so good. Bought a coffee bun at the bakery which was delicious. Half way through the bun I found out why...look at that butter!!

We took a car ride with our tour group of 5, then a boat to Unicorn island where we sampled fresh fruits and listened to folk music. There were bananas (which were the sweetest ever), papaya, pineapple, jackfruit, dragon fruit and "brown kiwi". All were so tasty. I love the fruits here.


Next we went to Phoenix island. We did so many things I'm just going to list them and post pics. Coconut candy manufacturer, drank snake wine, held a python, rode a horsecart, tried a banana/coconut sticky rice wrap, had an awesome row boat ride down the river, coconut juice and another boat ride. The best part of Phoenix island was Susan screaming while she tried to hold onto the python.


We were hosted by a family living in Tra On, an island town. We helped with preparing dinner which was delicious. We had spring rolls, green beans, spinach soup and rice paper wrap.

Saw fireflies in the evening and then I had my "moment". Showertime. I made Susan stay in the shower with me which is an outdoor "building" with a toilet and a showerhead and a bit of space. This building isn't enclosed so you can only imagine all the bugs. Susan was my bodyguard against the huge bug that was sharing the shower with me. The thing was the size of 2 toonies. Anyways, how embarrassing.

Cu Chi Tunnels

What a day it was yesterday. We took a bus tour to the Cao Dai Temple and talk about being a bit undecided about religion. They are a mix of 4 reglions: budda, catholic, hindu and cao dai. It felt like we drove out for like 4 hours to see their noon service. It was pretty interesting. Obviously I had no idea what was going on, but I was absolutely fascinated with the fact that some of these people attend service every 6 hrs! So at 6am, noon, 6pm and midnite.




Then we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels which was the highlight of my day. This system of tunnels and traps were used by the viet cong during the Vietnam war. How crazy small they are. We had the chance to walk through one ourselves. But the one we went through was doubled in size so we can get through it more comfortably. So the whole time I'm crouched over. The height of the enlarged tunnel was right above my waist and at one point I even had to crawl through the tunnel. Did I mention this was the tunnel that was doubled in size! The original size of the tunnel is 80cm in height and 30cm wide. We went through only a 100m of tunnel, but it felt like forever. We saw how their booby traps looked too.

Dinner was the most amazing meal here yet. We had asked Vy, the lady that owns the hostel, about good places to eat and she suggested this seafood restaurant. We ended up going with her and she invited other people staying at the hostel to come out too so we had a group of 8 of us. Talk about ghetto though, but that's where the locals eat. Sitting on plastic stools and eating off of tiny metal tables in pretty much an ally way. We didn't even get our own dish to eat off of. It was pretty cool. Neither of us got sick from the food so thank you God =)

Today we're off on a 3 day tour of the Mekong. Heading out now!

Early rise

Hmmm...up at 6am for no reason again. Haven't been able to break that habit since my birthday. A true sign of age =T I have some time before we need to head out today. We're going to walk to the bakery just down our street to grab some breakfast and then we have a whole day tour of the chu chi tunnels and a temple. Looks like it's going to be an interesting day =) Time to wake up Susan now!

Jetlagged

It's hot in Vietnam. 30 degrees today. Maybe it was a mix of the hot, sunny weather and the jetlag, but I was super tired. We got into the city around noon and settled into our hostel room. Actually a lot more comfortable then I expected. We have AC in our room! The owner of the hostel is really nice too. So we started the afternoon with a vietnamese ice coffee. It was so tasty and so strong. That caffiene lasted only an hour and I was back to the hostel to take a nap. Had my first bowl of real pho bo for dinner.