papaya boatman at our homestay

street food stall in Can Tho

To break up our visit to Saigon we decided to head to the nearby Mekong delta towns of Can Tho and Vinh Long for a few days.  We snagged a taxi to the FUTA bus office where we purchased our tickets, then waited for a shuttle van to drop us at the huge bus depot.  A few hours later we arrived in Can Tho and walked a few blocks to the center of town to our room at the Kim Long Hotel.  With only one night planned, we signed up right away for an evening street food walking tour, and a boat tour to the morning floating market the following day.  Itching for a snack we happened upon a small stall advertising bo la lat (grilled pork wrapped in betel leaves), which we’d not yet found in HCMC.  That evening we joined another young trave

ling couple for the walking tour around town.  Our guide brought us to several stalls and a few sit down eateries to sample banh xeo, nam nuong, and cha gio.  While he tried to sell the group on trying frog and snake dishes, our guide couldn’t convince us in the end.  In addition to learning about about the cuisine native to the Mekong Delta, we also took away lots of info regarding Tet celebrations, and how American culture is revered in the eyes of the Vietnamese.

Just before sunrise we inhaled a hotel breakfast and walked to the end of the street to the small pier where our guide and tiny wooden boat was waiting among a large armada of tourists waiting to board similar boats to visit the famous floating market.  An hour down the Mekong passed by fairly quickly as the sun rose and locals went about their day on the water and the surrounding banks.  In the distance a mass of wooden vessels of various sizes emerged to be the market itself, and our boat lady guided us slowly through the very center of the action.  Everything from fruit to potted plants were being traded, thrown, and shuttled around the river in a very delicate yet chaotic manner.  Boat lady surprised us with pineapple snacks as we headed for our first stop at a small rice paper factory.  Inside the factory a handful of workers were churning out large circular sheets of rice paper every few seconds, and then after a period of drying, cut into slim noodles.  Further downstream we grabbed a very touristy lunch along with all the other boat tours, and accidentally ended up picking up the cost for the boat lady’s lunch (a harmless, but nonetheless annoying scammy tactic perfected by these tour operators).
Back at the local bus station we hitched a ride on the special holiday Tet price (another annoyance of the day) further south to Vinh Long.  From the bus station we walked a few blocks to the ferry jetty heading to An Binh Island, a large inhabited island on the Mekong full of rural homestays.  Our hosts at Ba Linh homestay were gracious enough to pay for our moto taxi from the pier to their home, and the serene atmosphere started to calm what had been a trying day.  At dinner we convened in the large kitchen with the family to help prepare papaya salad and cha gio (fried rice paper rolls).  In addition to the sides we made, there were a plethora of other homemade dishes which we ate heartily.  Over dinner we shared conversation with Anna and Andreas, a friendly couple nearing the end of their year long RTW trip (check out their blog at ourultimatejourney.com).  After an equally filling breakfast, we squeezed in a short but scenic bike ride along the small irrigation canals weaving throughout the island.  Back to the ferry we went along with Anna & Andreas, then to the FUTA bus station for the trip back into Ho Chi Minh City- just in time to catch the Tet action.