Ho Chi Minh City - Mekong Me

Today started off bright and early.  We met our guide, Hung (same one as yesterday), at the hotel, and then headed off with John and Margaret in the van to the Mekong Delta, which is a couple hours east of Saigon.

A quick shot of some of the houses along the way.  Most of them are exactly 4 meters by 20 meters, throwback from the French occupation.

Some of us got hats.  Some of us declined.

Our boat was awesome.

First, the floating market, where the people who live near the river peddle their goods.  You can tell what they're selling by looking at what is hanging from a pole on the boat.  And yes, they live there, too.

Taking in the sights along the way...

First stop was to see what our guide described as "scary pets".  It's so much better if you hear Hung say it.

I'm not exactly sure what snake wine is made of, but there really are snakes in it.

David makes a new friend.

Most of the trip was just rolling along down the river, taking in the sights.

We had another stop at a brick factory, which was way more interesting than it sounds, as they make them by hand.

Last stop was lunch, where we were treated to a fun little bike ride along the way.

Lunch!

Later that evening, we went to a really nice Vietnamese restaurant, meeting up with a few more Singapore friends who also happened to be in Ho Chi Minh that weekend.

My Drunken Prawns met their end by a spectacular little fire.

The food was great, but the most memorable thing about the place was the carrot sculptures on all of our plates.

 

After our plates were cleared, one of the carrots that looked almost exactly like ours appeared on the plate at the next table.  We're pretty sure they were recycling them.

After dinner, we headed back to the bar for a quick drink.  I've heard that the bar at our hotel was where a lot of journalists hung out during the war, though I bet they had a different view.

And finally off to bed, for tomorrow we face Agent Orange.