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| These are seahorses, but I'm not sure why people buy them--for pets in their aquariums? I actually was delighted to see one when I was snorkeling in the islands to the south of Phuquoc--a bizarre species that is endangered here. |
We were happy to make it off Phuquoc Island yesterday on the "slow boat" to Ha Tien! Ha Tien is on the border of Vietnam and Cambodia. This would have been a great opportunity to sneak into Cambodia--but we decided not to visit on this trip. Due to the Tet holidays we were unable to find an available flight to Can Tho nor a "fast boat" to Rach Gia. This slowed our progress a bit...but Duncan realized that the slow boat was our only hope to make forward progress so we joined the locals and headed north on a "2 hour cruise". Jess' and I sat on the top deck and took in the view and Duncan stayed on one of the hard wooden benches in the cabin people watching. I would describe the boat as a retro-fitted, wooden, fishing boat about 50 ft. long. The boat was painted the popular bright aqua marine and had an old diesel engine. The boats don't really appear sea worthy, but the locals crowded onboard and there were a handful of tourists in the mix. We bustled along in 2 ft. seas at around 20mph.
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Our new friends: from left--me, Adam, Alain, Dunc', Jess' and Kenny
these guys started the Alanis Deli and Coffee Shop on Phuquoc-my favorite coffee spot and Jesse's favorite ice cream spot. They worked for many years on a cruise ship out of Singapore and they speak excellent English. We wish them luck as they begin their new venture. |
From Ha Tien the next phase of our trip was a harrowing bus ride into the Mekong Delta region--we arrived to Can Tho at 8pm and found our way to our river side hotel....where no one speaks any English. Our Vietnamese friend Alain from Phuquoc ( in photo above) helped us set up this reservation and there is no one else here--there are over 300 rooms!!! The room costs 400,000 VND which is $20 US. We're not sure why we're the only ones here? The room has all of our requirements however... AC, WI-FI, two beds and plenty of hot water. We usually stay in small, 2- star guest houses and hotels so this fit the bill. When we settled into the room--we discovered a second airing of the Super Bowl game on TV.We were psyched to crash and watch what turned out to be a pretty good game.
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| The Can Tho street side this morning. You can just smell the peppers as you walk by. They are soooo beautiful! I'd like to paint them...maybe I'll get the chance |
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| Needless to say we don't order meat much...but we don't eat much meat in Vermont either...we commonly eat Pho however and there is beef or chicken in the soup |
In this post I've included some photos of the riverside here. We wandered around today. We went to the market, rented a motorbike to get our bearings found good coffee and mango shakes... since we'll be spending a week or so here exploring various towns by bike or moto--Ben Tre, Sa Dec (where the movie "The Lover" was filmed) and the river markets for which this area is so famous. We were able to find some nice locals playing soccer today and we are well located to walk along the Mekong to enjoy the sites. Tomorrow we get an early boat tour down into the Delta to see the water markets. p.s don't forget to double click on the photos if you want to enlarge the photos to see them better. BTM
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| Jesse and Duncan once again found some buddies to strike up a game. It was like 90 degrees on the turf! It seems hotter here in the Delta. |
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