We did not swim this morning as we will be on a tour all day. The ship is small enough that it can travel up the Saigon River to get closer to the city.
The vegetation is so thick you can understand why fighting in this area was so difficult.
We gathered in the theater to get our van number and our landing card. You must carry the landing card while you are traveling about the country. We were van number 14. Each van carried only 6 guests. We rode with Shelia and Kirk from Denver and Bob and Carol from Amelia Island. Small world.
The ride to the Mekong River took over 2 hours. Bumpy roads and scooters all over the place.
We boarded our boat and rode around the river for a bit. We stopped by a coconut vender who gave us each a coconut to drink. When the coconut is young, it has "milk" in it. And no coconut flesh yet. The people in Vietnam use all parts of the coconut tree. We continued around the floating market. Each boat has different items for sale.
The Mekong River is loaded with these river flowers. The local people use all parts of the plant.
This boat brought us the coconuts. Notice the woman is doing most of the hard work. All he did was chop the coconut with a large knife so we could drink the milk.
These are some of the homes along the river edge.
Please note that I am covered from the sun. Drinking coconut milk.
We then stopped at a place where they demonstrated how to make puffed rice and coconut candy. I had to be careful because the candy was like taffy. One could lose a filling or a cap if you weren't careful. But they were good.
This is making the puffed rice. The rice on the right is placed in the wok over high heat and they stir real fast and it puffs like popcorn.
Next they take the puffed rice and place it in the mixture of sugar and malt to make a candy. The coconut they make like taffy. Outside of this area there was a gift shop where you could buy just about anything including the snake wine.
To get the snake in the bottle, they go in through the bottom of the bottle and then seal it up. No thanks.
Will post this now and then update with more pictures later.
We then walked to a place where they served us tea with local honey from the bees.
I stayed clear of the bees.
Back on the boat where we rode around the canals and then stopped at an ancestors home. And here they served us local fruits.
They paint the front of the boats with these eyes. But not the fishing boats as they feel the eyes will scare the fish.
In the ancestor home they make an altar for the ancestors. They use a lot of inlaid furniture.
More scenes from the river.
And a fisherman with his nets.
Back on the boat for more riding until we arrived at the resort for our lunch. We had an interesting lunch. Elephant ear fish, deep fried sticky rice balls, etc. It was all good although some in our group did not eat the fish.
Our menu for lunch. Plus they had a buffet of some salads and desserts.
This is the elephant ear fish. Fried so crispy but good.
And a sticky rice ball which also is deep fried.
But hallow in the center. She cuts it with scissors so we each got a slice.
We walked back to the van and headed back to the ship. Another long ride.
When we got back to the ship it was time to get ready for dinner. We had cocktails with Marilyn and Bob and also dinner in Compass Rose with them. Bob and I are light as we had had a late and large lunch.
Back to the suite to read and lights out.
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