Off to the Mekong Delta
Trip Start
Jun 11, 2008
1
66
349
Trip End
May 14, 2009
Mekong Delta,
Vietnam
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
When we arrived at the boat station, we boarded our little motor boat and headed upstream. Our first stop was a rice factory. Here we saw the locals making rice paper, rice & coconut sweets and rice popcorn. We also got the opportunity to try the 45% proof rice wine! It was good. It was also a liquid that sent a burning sensation right down from your lips to your ass! This however, did not stop us partaking in a few more glasses - just to be sociable of course!
Harvesting the rice
We then went and tried some snake wine. This is wine with the snake still in the bottle. There can be 1, 3, 6 or 9 snakes in a bottle. Me & Chris went for the special version though, which had 9 snakes and a dead bird in it! Still with all its feathers in tact! It was also goooood! It slithered down nice, but it tickled the throat a little.After this we boarded our plank of wood and headed to a tropical fruit garden. Here we tried......guess what?.....tropical fruits! There was so many, but I can't remember what they all were - probably due to the snake wine! And talking of snakes (no not Brocko), talking of real snakes, we got to hold a 12 foot (I think) Python! It was soooo heavy and really strong. Obviously, being used to things of this magnitude, I was able to control it with some ease!! Even Lorna got a good hold of it - please behave, I mean the snake!
Then it was back to our floating skateboard to head for Mr Zeits house to have lunch. This lunch involved Pork Spring Rolls, Beef, Egg Fried Rice and Elephant Ear Fish. The fish was lovely, and was completely savaged by Lorna! She had that stare agakn as she was ripping the meat from the bones - I am starting to get a little nervous. I daren't tell her that there is currently a World food crisis because I know canabalism will be a very easy option for her!!
Our floating driftwood then moored up so we could jjmp into some smaller rowing boats so we could row down the narrower rivers
The trees are bending
. These rowing boats left you about an inch from the water which contained snakes and crocodiles!! My only comfort was that if one attacked us, Lorna would eat it faster than it could eat me!!When we made it through the narrow rivers, we boarded our boat again - which suddenly seemed much safer - and headed off to our homestay for the evening. Here, all our beds when in an outdoor shack that was on stilts over the river. We had mozzie nets, but I don't think they stop the snakes and crocs! It looked really cool though and was a great experience.
Tonight for dinner we had BBQ RAT! Yep, thaat's right, rat! We were eating Roland!! Thing is, it tasted good! We also had fish, beef, pork and giant prawns along with loads of rice. Then it was card game time!
I am not sure there are any rules to the game we played except you had to get 4 of a kind and get exceedingly drunk on rice wine!! You were punished with a shot of wine at every opportunity - it's the law! One of the games was a silent game where you were punished with a shot every time you spoke.......I assume you are thinking what I think you are thinking........Lorna got absolutely wasted during this round! She jusst couldn't keep her mouth shut!!
Oh and it is official, the Dutch are boring. There were a group of Dutch people in the next hoomestay along and one of them came over to ask us to keep the noise down as they were trying to sleep. Initially we were sympathetic as we thought it had perhaps gone midnight. NO! IT WAS HALF PAST BLOODY NINE!!! Get a life you orange wearing freaks! You are supposed to be on holiday!! We tried our best to be quiet for the rest of the night, but....well, we tried!!
Comments
Hats
Love the hats darlings.
Dont like snakes.
Love us xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx