Green Hotel Can Tho

... the Vietnamese vermicelli soup? So, they will now go and see how it is made. Visitors then roam into the village to get in touch with the local people. Here, they have a chance to experience how to pass a Monkey bridge which is built by only one bamboo. Stop for lunch. Proceed to Chau Doc via Long Xuyen to visit the Thot Not bird Sanctuary. Check in on arriving in Chau Doc. Admire the landscape from the Sam Mountain summit down the Vietnamese - Cambodian border, visit the caved ...

... they do have doors they are<br>always wide open where you can see straight into the home. <br>Everything is communal &#8211; there is no closing the door and watching<br>TV. We saw tons of TVs on elevated platforms blaring some soap<br>opera and groups of ten or more in plastic chairs watching with rapt<br>attention. Eating &#8211; definitely outside. There are no ovens or<br>microwaves here so people cook on grills or over charcoal or wood<br>fires and sit on small stools ...

... fields into Cambodia. For dinner in Chau Doc we again had the pleasure of Ouilid's company before we were joined by a NZ family for some drinks. In a case of the world being small it turned out this family were from Nelson and knew quite a few people we did so we enjoyed getting some local town gossip.<br><br>Saturday 3rd October - Mekong (Rach Gia)<br><br>Our tour finished today after a quick few visits in the morning. We lost the rest of our group as they headed off to the ...

... totally in love with them as we lay &amp; rested and dozed in these hammocks<br> <br>The afternoon bought its usual thunderstorm which we waited out at a bicycle repair shop/home. We rode the next hour or so in the rain and were absolutely saturated but loved it as cool and refreshing. We rode from small bridges to ...

... we do need one, and the woman quotes us 120,000VND please for a bus leaving in an hour. This seems a bit much (and the buses leaving look ****) and we haven't decided if we're leaving yet so we decide to try and find the Tourist Info. Suddenly they Moto drivers become quiet and don't want to show me where the street we need is. Typical, no commission there then? Finally we mind it thanks to Aly (armed with a phrasebook) and a nice lady at the VietBank who ...

... chicken feet, duck head, stomach, you name it. I watched as someone ordered fish and the woman reached into the tub of water, grabbed a fish, whacked its head, used scissors to cut off it's fins and head (because those cost extra), before putting it in a plastic bag. The blood and guts were pooling on the ground and just a few feet away was the ice maker. It was about a 5x5 foot block of ice. A sweaty guy would chop off a section and throw it into a grinder that ...

... floating markets are never like the ones in the pictures, but they are fun. Then on to Phong Dien where we spend a bit of time there were a few other tourists there, and lots of fruit and rice. Then to a small place for more coffee then home via a small canal, very ...

... were getting moregrumpy. Traffic was heavy so the 80k took 3 hours. Do the math, not a fast ride. We then had to cross the river in a ferry that was all backed up like a summer sunday afternoon in the San Juans. Not a happy time. Finally the poor guidesensed we were gettingantsy, so we got out of the bus and walked the final 500 meters to the ferry and walked on leaving the bus to come along later. The walk was good for me ...

... tourist points along the way - what a bargain! We had spend about $800 so far in the first week and was definitely more than we though we would spend based on the guide book prices from 2004. We were paying double what the book said in most places. I had 2 pints of a draught beer at the Bi Saigon next door to our hotel with our dinner that night. It tasted decent enough, but I thing it was really some sort of home brew and I did have a bit of a aching head the next morning!

... was ready for anything, we met our guides to take us down the Mekong to the famous Cai Rai floating markets and arrived on the river to find we had our own private longboat which seated 16 - now we know why it cost us quite abit! T he river journey was an experience to see all the river house boats and way of life...then arriving to the mayhem ...