We may have licked our problems

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  Can Tho, Vietnam
Thursday, November 20, 2008

We me may be able to download more entries tonite. We appear to have licked part of our computer problem and are in a hotel with a wire connection as opposed to WiFi which has been killing us. Enough about that already.

We are in Can Tho in southern Vietnam, the largest city in the Mekong Delta area. We traveled by car (I did not drive) from Saigon (Hi Chi Minh City)  this morning. The trip down took about 7 hours including our stops. Our route this morning was on the new Vietnam Route 1 which stretches throughout the country to China. The part we traveled on today is just over 1 year old. When the new part ended we started traveling on older parts of Route 1and some smaller highways. Our first stop was for a floating market located on the Mekong River. The area is quite wet and swampy but makes a wonderful area for rice production.We have seem rice paddies being worked by water buffalo and farmers all day. The floating market was quiet today as we arrived so late, however, we will be at the market at 6:00AM tomorrow and should be able to see some real action!

We visited a small riverside village where we saw locals producing candy and puffed rice (really cool) and doing cement work and fruit production. These industries along with fishing and rice employ the majority of the locals. The others work in tourism (piloting the boats or selling the above-mentioned items).  We had lunch at an 18th century house that seemed to be the only restaurant in the area.  We ate elephant earred fish, lotus root soup, clay pot pork, steamed shrimp, battered and fried pumpkin flowers stuffed with catfish and spring rolls. The lunches we have had have been so delicious and filling that our usual dinner has been a beer and a sandwich.  Except for last nite when we went to a highly recommended ice cream shop in Ho Chi Mnh CIty and had coconut ice cream and a strawberry shake!

We also took a boat through the canals of the Mekong and crossed another branch of it by ferry to arrive in Can Tho late this afternoon.  Just as we were checking into our hotel the rain started again so we were glad that the day's journey was over.  We need to get a good sleep tonight for our early morning adventure at the floating market and our drive back to Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow afternoon. 

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