Kimtho Hotel Can Tho

... I moved across the road to a different hotel. It was much better, twice the price so still cheap, but with nice clean sheets and really friendly staff, its the little things that make such a difference.<br><br>We didn't do an awful lot, just relaxed on Saturday morning by the pool, then took a drive out with a local guide to visit a Stork sanctuary...and saw hundreds of white birds! (I'm not a ...

... upgrade to A/C and we would be safe from the<br>malaria-plagued mosquitoes. No, we didn't pay the extra $7 and no<br>there weren't any mosquitoes although the bathroom was definitely the<br>scariest bathroom we've had to date. <br><br>Luckily the scenery was beautiful and we had gorgeous weather. The Mekong is the color of caramel and there are huge green vines that float down<br>the current. Against the blue sky, white clouds and green coconut<br>palms the area is enchanting ...

... here in the Mekong and it certainly didn't disappoint! As we rounded a bend we could see lots of boats moored up ahead in the middle of the river. Each boat had a makeshift mast with the fresh produces they were selling tied to the top as a form of advertising. We spotted potatos, kumuras, apples and grapes amongst other things up on the masts. To get a feel for boat life we moored alongside a pineapple boat and climbed aboard - the owners cut up the fresh fruit for us using ...

... br>Saw lots of big aboveground graves in the middle of rice fields or by homes as they bury their family on their own land. In Vietnam they have ancestor worship &amp; worship their deceased family members.<br> <br><br> We rode to a bird sanctuary and had a row boat ride. <br> <br>By the time we reached the big ...

... rivers and had some lunch on the riverbank, again I turned down the snake which the man was more than happy to come and show me before I politely told him to take it away from me and the turtle in the barrels. We got back to the hotel and decided to move on as we had done most of the things we could in Can Tho, we caught a bus to Ho Chi Minh City accompanied by ...

... Kelly and I. She grabbed her kid and pointed and took his hand and waved it as us very excitedly. It was kind of like when I was young and mom saw a deer in a field off the highway and tried to get us to look before it ran away. It was really fun today on the river and walkign through town to have so many people come up to us to say hello or shake our hand.<br><br>The guy stopped our boat at a place in the middle of the jungle at what he called a fruit farm. An ...

... we hope for in the future on a yellow piece of paper and paid 25,000 Dong for a massive incense spiral which will burn for the next 15 days and nights and the smoke will take our prayers up to heaven - so we'll see if Buddha agrees !<br>After the Chinese pagoda we went to Lan's local Vietnamese pagoda and were swamped by delightful children shyly practicing their English before getting braver and asking to have their photo taken, then marveling ...

... English so he started the tour with a description of the suburbs we were driving through and how the government was putting up nice lookingbut dense housing to take some of the pressure off of old Saigon. I think it is up to 8 million people. Then there was an overview of all the cool things we would be doing the next couple of days. All the while there were some people in the back of the bus, having their own conversation. He ...

... our bungalow that reminded me of the famous bridges from the Greek mountains or the old packhorse bridges from the UK. It was a nice ride checking out the nice house and gardens with their flowers and butterflies that seemed quite typical of what we were used to seeing outside the cities in the Mekong. There was a small accident close to our bungalow when a scooter hit a dog. The guy was a bit shaken and the dog just kept on yelping loudly and looked like he was in shock ...

... to the hotel very quickly with Nik supporting me and I became very familiar with the bathrom for the next few hours and through the night... (I wanted my mommy!)<br><br><br> It is at these points that you really appreciate your other half being ill is no fun but being on your own and ill is worse. We had planned to visit the floating market in ...