The Mekong Delta - Can Tho

After another horrific bus ride, we got to Can Tho which is the main city withing the Mekong Delta...well, it is great! The Hotel was amazing, incredible, divine and the staff were so wonderful. 

The rooms were fab, and pristine...what a treat!

Walking along the Mekong, having a look around the city.

Big statue of Ho Chi Minh. Here is an interesting fact...Vietnamese men have to go to the army after school for 2.5 years, if the don't go to university. However, only people from the 3rd generation of soldiers that fought in the US / Vietnam war can go to the army. Apparently its because they don't want animosity towards the US...

The mighty Mekong.

Gony Cafe - it was so out of place in the city!

It's so funky!

Berries and lights fill the ceiling. They make really nice food here.  

So, at 4:45 we woke up so we could go on a tour and catch the sunrise...

Super beautiful sunrise on the Mekong. They gave us breakfast which was a baguette with a fried egg and some weird meat in it. it had dried pork, cucumber, carrot and the hottest chilies i've ever had!   

The water petrol station!

The houses along the Mekong.

Look at this cool thing our boat driver made for me out of bamboo! Its a grass hopper. 

The Mekong Morning Market. Boats are scattered throughout one area of the Mekong where they sell fresh produce, in bulk!

These are some sweet potatoes.

This boat sells a rage of different things: turnips, carrots, pumpkins, oranges....the stick going up the side advertises what they sell.

Watermelons, watermelons and more delicious, scrumptious, sensational watermelons.  

Pineapples by the million, cabbages and some more water melon. This is wholesale, they sell to all the restaurants and markets on land. 

 After the floating market, it was time to see how rice noodles are made.

Rice and water left over night, and then put through a processor to become liquidy.

Close up of the machinery.

The final product...

Once they have the mixture, they cook them and make these round things.

They put them on these bamboo strips and put them in the sun.

They stay in the sun for 4 hours.

The final product before they cut it into thin noodles.

After the grass hopper, we got matching bamboo bracelets! 

There she is! Our boat driver, what a legend! 

In the floating market, they have floating restaurants where you can get food, as in cooked food, as well as a floating coffee shop. We got some coffee...it was only about 7am at this time!

Proper Vietnamese coffee...DEEEEELISH...

Then we started to mission through the smaller tributaries of the Mekong...hence the Mekong Delta...They call it the Dragon River where 9 rivers intercept. There are over 1000 smaller rivers connecting everything together. Its absolutely amazing and incredibly beautiful.

On the boat going down one of the rivers.

Then she made me some flowers...aren't they just incredible! Made from bamboo...

Going down the river...

The water was like glass. Most of the islands are used for farming because they have great access to water and the floating market is the main source of income. 

So beautiful.

We stopped at this bridge so we could have a walk through the farmlands. 

The farmlands. These are lettuce plantations. 

Some wildlife...I'm going all Nat Geo again!!!

More lettuce...they have water running in between every row of veg.

This is how they pack the lettuce for the market! so cool it has a star on it like their flag!

Then we got to eat some chom chums...yummy yummo yummmmmm...they are litchi type things.

And we got them really fresh! Picked immediately!

This is what chom chums look like!

Rice paddy's...they produce a huge a amount of the countries rice for export in the delta.

Our little boat. It was so cute, just Kyle and I and the boat driver and our tour guide on the boat! 

Miles and miles of just tributaries and water ways...with coconut trees and greenery lining the edges.

So beautiful!

Did it have to end...Do we really have to leave Vietnam...I don't want to. I think I should come back and live here...I love it! 

Traffic?????

Interesting story...The reason their boats all have eyes on them is because, once upon a time, a very very very long, long time ago, some fishermen went out to sea to fish. There was a terrible storm and the boat capsized. All the fishermen were overboard and drowning. And then...whales came and saved them and took them to shore. So from then on, every fishermen paints eyes of the big fish (whales) on their boats so that they will be protected.

Lotus flowers...everywhere...we had to mission through it. The fish farmers harvest this because all the fish hide under it because its so hot and it provides some shade, so its actually used for fishing! True Story!!!

Finally getting out of the lotus flowers...

This is called the Vietnamese Lucky Flower, they put them in their houses after their New Year because that's when they flower. Apparently they bring really good luck and it is the opposite of the Vietnamese flag...yellow with a red star in the middle...very pretty...and they bring good luck!