Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Day 13. Ho Chi Minh - Mekong Delta - Ho Chi Minh

Our 8am departure gives us plenty of time for adventure and food.
Mekong Delta is almost 2 hours by bus, but again Chung had lots of info to impart. There's a happy room and coffee stop on the way, in a beautifully made building full of tourists. A big boat is next, where we are treated to a freshly opened coconut and a bit of a singalong. Down decreasingly narrow waterways and off the boat, and to farm that serves us a tea/honey/cumquat drink, accompanied by sugar-coated nuts and coconut. Yum. 5 minutes walk takes us to our next form of transport, a horse and cart, which goes to a pavilion for more tea, a variety of fruit, and some Vietnamese music - the instruments are great but the singing a bit of an acquired taste. Then we step onto small rowboats, carefully keeping to the middle, and float down a narrow coconut palm-covered canal till we come back to the boat. It takes us to another farm which processes coconuts into candy, and we try shots of rice liqueur. Mot, hai, ba, yoooh! After that Dutch courage, most take advantage of the python-round-the-neck photo op. It's only a baby we're told, but a very heavy one. On the boat again, across the river and its lunchtime. As usual we (now 2) special needs eaters are capably looked after: "no no madam I bring you another".
The boat takes us back to the bus and its nanna-nap time. Of course there's been numerous shopping opportunities, and a last stop at the Chinese market provides another for some.
Our final dinner is beautiful, with a choice of Vietnamese or Western to keep everyone happy, and another singalong starring Herc and Chung on the guitar and mouth organ. A great last night.













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