Tay Do Hotel Can Tho

... rice fields, cycling through numerous rural riverside villages. Lunch break at local place. Bus pick up to Can Tho city. Late afternoon free time for promenade along city quay or more cycling along Can Tho river bank (if time permitting). O/N in Can Tho. <br style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><br style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Day 3: Can Tho - Sai Gon. (B,L) <br style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Morning boat trip to Cai Rang floating market and up a quiet canal for more cruise on winding arroyos ...

... got us to Can Tho (it kicked us out on the other side of the river!) so we had to get a boat across before getting a cab to our hotel. Phew&#8230; A bit of a palaver but great fun! The best bit, though, was when we got on the minibus at My Tho&#8230; There was a local guy sprawled over two seats and wouldn&#8217;t move when I went to sit down so Drew sat on him! He took it very well, considering Drew was twice his size!<br><br>Can Tho was ...

... islands. All the boats on the Delta have eyes painted on the front of them - our guide explained that this was to scare the crocdiles away! First stop was at a Coconut Candy factory set inside the bush. Here we learnt all about the Vietnamese treat and saw each stage of production. In the mud just by the candy factory some fish/lizards were hopping about - when I asked the guide abut them she said they are fish with lungs and can live in both water and on the land. Once back ...

... de l'annee, aucune femme ne pourra se sentir un tant soit peu vietnamienne si elle n'a pas le souci constant et obsessionnel de se cacher des rayons du soleil.<br><br>Me transformer en vietnamienne ne sera probablement pas si facile, j'aime trop la douceur des rayons sur ma peau. Je leur laisserai donc volontiers cette phobie et me contenterai d'apprendre conscienceusement a fabriquer des nems !<br><br>Dan bi ett<br>Au revoir

... our first impressions weren&#8217;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 ...

... back down for food I then had to watch a guy wrestle with a snake which had escaped and wrapped itself around the back of the fridge back into the tank. I watched intensely checking it went back in the tank and no where near me! Not only were snakes on the menu but also turtle(I would have set them free :( ) and rat! We had some food (not snake, if I leave them ...

... bundle of fresh green vegetables bent down at the water rinsing them off in the river. Kelly and I looked at each other at the same time and grimaced. We have pretty much stuck to cooked food and bottled beverages as much as possible. Luckily, neither one of us has gotten sick yet.<br><br>Now we are off to Chau Doc, Vietnam for a ngiht before crossing the border into Cambodia and taking a boat up the river to Phnom Phen.

... the husks that are polished off the rice grains in the refineries are used as fuel in the brick ovens and the burnt husks are then used as fertilizer on the rice paddies.<br><br>We hopped off the boat at Sa Dec, where Lan lives and he took us to Marguerite Duras' primary school (famous french author who wrote 'The Lover' - which is also a film ... we hadn't heard of her). Next stop was a Chinese pagoda, we've been in a few Buddhist temples in ...

... Rubbish, rubbisch rubish. Anyway, Rich and I have devised a strategy to keep us sane and stop us killing each other as well as whoever is hassling us in these situations. I stop and let these people talk at me whilst Rich goes and asks real people (i.e. bus stop officials etc). This works quite well as I normally manage to get them to teach me some words in their language and Rich has peace and quiet to do some proper research. Win win ...

... years. I guess the ferry owners were safe for a few more years yet! We had a quick stop at a tofu factory. They have some process to liquefy the soy beans and they then put the liquid in a big pot for 30 hours, every hour skimming a layer of crust off the top and leaving it out to dry. The room the guys were working in was like a furnace, certainly not a job I'd like to do long term! As we continued up stream our noisy engine would occasionally get drowned out by a boat ...