Quoc Te International Can Tho

... amp; you walk on a single piece of bamboo & have a piece of bamboo as a handrail. I froze in the middle as it is very wobbly & quite high above the middle. I eventually crossed over there & back & took sooo long ( has a crowd of people watching my very slow crossing to make it worse!) A local lady ...

... our first impressions weren’t good as a canoe with a huge outboard engine motored up to us offering coffee or coca-cola for sale. This was to prove one of the only touristy moments in a fantastic morning. The rest of the morning comprised of watching local farmers trading with local salesmen, selling everything from durian to watermelon to potatoes to crabs. Each trading vessel advertised its wares by ...

We got up early this morning as we had booked a boat trip to go and see the famous floating markets. We were gone by 5:30 as apparently this is when you see most of the activity on the market. Again we were the only two on the boat so it was nice. We got to the market and it was fuuny.. All these boats zipping around selling their fruit or veg. Some of them had flag poles but instead of flags the had for example pineapple, oranges etc on the pole to show ...

... 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 ...

... I wandered down to the central market and explored the stalls. Supper that evening was at a restaurant by the river... I thoroughly enjoyed a dark beer that is hard to find in Vietnam and was such a nice change!

On Tuesday we were all awoken very early (4 or 5am) by a marching band procession on the street in front of the hotel! After breakfast we got on a boat and visited the Cai Rang Floating Market. It was different that the other ...

... voor een mooie tour langs de Floating Markets. Eerst even alles goed bekeken. Hoewel ze hier heel vriendelijk zijn, blijven we op onze hoede... hebben we in Cambodja wel geleerd. Maar het klonk allemaal erg leuk. Dus: volgende dag om 5.30 uur werden we opgepikt en hebben we een prachtige tocht gemaakt! Eerlijk is eerlijk, dit was de mooiste bootreis door de Mekong Delta. We hadden echt het gevoel in de 'jungle' te zitten! 'Helemaal alleen op de wereld in de natuur'. Op de ...

One of the producer groups we will visit is Mai Handicrafts in the district of Tan Hiep. http://www.traidcraft.co.uk/buying_fair _trade/people_behind_products/crafts/ch ut.htm

... were 21 passengers, the extras sitting on tiny stools and each other's laps! The driver was making no concessions to his load, by driving at breakneck speed the whole way - much of the time on the wrong side of the road, particularly when taking a right hand bend over a humpback bridge (of which there were many). The other highlight of this trip was the driver's mate, whose main tasks were to tout for passengers en route ...

... the second 3), but the jungle-lined small canals and waterways were really beautiful. We've decided to head on up to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) tomorrow where we'll probably end up jumping on an overnight organised tour somewhere. We'll see what happens. Thanks to super snappy internet here, we're completely up to date with photos again.

... and we all get packed off and taken to our hotel in the town. It is just after 5pm now and we are well and truly over this. His parting words to all of us as he handed out the room keys was "x-queeze me everybody tomorrow we visit floating market right OK? Everly-buddy meet down here (pointing to the reception desk) at 6.30am OK?....you all wake up 6am and be here 6.30 OK? Nobody said yes, no or otherwise we just grabbed our room keys and ran away as fast as our legs could take ...