Mekong Delta

David and I left Cambodia and entered Vietnam by taking an Express boat on the Mekong River. The scenery was beautiful. There were only three other passengers on the boat, so it was a relaxed, quite trip. The sun set over the river while bathing children waved and yelled their hellos. The boat dropped us off in the Vietnamese city Chau Doc. On our first night in Chau Doc we found a street vendor who sold us big, delicious bowls of pho for around a dollar each. Yum. The next morning we enjoyed sitting by the main street sipping Vietnamese coffee and watching traffic go by. There are clearly more traffic rules here. All adults wear helmets while riding their scooters. We never see more than two adults on a scooter. There does not seem to be any rules about how many kids you can pack on there with the two adults though. It is amazing how much stuff can be moved on one scooter or bicycle. We have seen more than once someone moving a refrigerator on the back of their scooter. Fridges here are not as big as those in Canada, but it is still an amazing sight.


After a couple relaxing days and a little bit of wonderfully cooling rain in Chau Doc, we took a bus to Can Tho. In Can Tho we woke up very early one morning to be at the river by 5:30 where we hired a boat to take us to see two nearby floating markets. The markets were really neat. People stack their boats very full of whatever it is that they want to sell (mostly fresh produce) then they head to the market where they pull their boats alongside the boats of potential buyers. The second market was much smaller, but we liked it better because the boats were small and mostly powered by rowing. The boats could be packed much closer together than where they were powered by motors. We went right through the center of the market. Our driver just pushed up against boats until they parted a bit and we could pass between.


Our driver bought some fruit that we did not recognize and shared some with us. It looked a little like a very round mango. The skin was green, and when she peeled it with a knife the flesh was white. There were some large smooth black seeds in the middle. It was very yummy. David and I bought some crispy, tasty, flat bread before we left the market and headed back to town.