Mekong Delta

Bustling Mekong Delta

Vietnam saved its best hotel buffet til last! The selection was big and the quality excellent. Not only did I get to choose Vietnamese coffee, I could have espresso based coffee for free too! 

Our destination today was the Mekong Delta. We headed west from Saigon for 2 hours on our minibus. Si gave us all the requisite information for our day. Today's excursion was unfortunately one that was just ok. We always enjoy learning about the people. However, for the first time today, we felt pressured to either tip or buy something. It was the concept of community tourism, we were brought to the community where they had an opportunity to show off what they do, and we could choose to buy their products if we wished. Our guide did say that there was absolutely no pressure to purchase anything. It didn't stop them from the hard sell though...It wasn't the guide's fault. It was just how these communities did tourism. Other groups were partaking in the various offerings in different order. Just not our preferred way to do things I suppose!

It was also the first time we had a subpar meal!!! It was probably from the style of the cooking from the region, with the common usage for coconut water in their cooking. This meant all the dishes had a sweet flavour to it. The fresh coconut here was delicious though, sweet and flavoursome. 

Breakfast buffet! There were options on each side of the "square"

Todays' noodle station offering was Hue Noodles

banh mi station

omg sushi

Vietnamese coffee station

After a 2 hour bus ride, we were off on a boat

to explore the mighty Mekong and its communities

The boat just pulls up and you walk off the front

Bee farm. My mother spotted the queen like a pro in 5 seconds flat

They were selling all sorts of bee products

Tea with honey, and calamansi

honeyed ginger, honeyed banana chips (yummy so I did buy some)

Next stop was the rather strange combo of fresh fruit and traditional folk song performance

This was where it was a little awkward as they put a basket for tips...I would have rather just have paid for their performance

Scorpion and cobra wine anyone?!

How many different types of boats can we try?!

One of our very strong rowers. Again it got awkward because they were angling for a tip just before they dropped us off back to our guide. 

Lunch time

Lovely view, but food was just average

Elephant ear fish

Our guide showing us the various usages for coconut

He grew up as a farmer and so was skilled in many things!

Using the coconut to make candy

All done on site and made by hand

Last coconut before making the long trek back to Saigon

Japanese for dinner for a change

Peach and lemongrass iced tea