Can Tho

So we booked this bus ticket to Can Tho from a travel shop in Saigon, and we found it quite interesting how many vehicles we ended up in before actually getting on the bus!  First they put us in a taxi and the driver took us to some random tiny bus station where we sat and waited for about 10 minutes before being signaled to get onto a bigger bus that took us to the main bus station where we finally ended up on the actual bus.  And we didn't have to worry about not having snacks for the road!  While we waited on the bus for it to leave people came on selling drinks, bread, snacks, lottary tickets, newspapers, anything you might want for a bus trip!  The funniest was this guy who was trying to sell carrot peelers...he even had a big carrot with him a did a little demonstration about all the ways to use it at the front of the bus...hilarious.  I don't think he made a sale though. 

We have a place to stay with a balcony overlooking the Mekong and a giant statue of Ho Chih Minh, that we have since discovered is the place to hang out at night.  We wandered around the market yesterday afternoon and were amazed by the selection of seafood and fruit and veggies for sale!  I too was also unfortunately disgusted by the treatment of some of the animals for sale, since they tie them up but don't kill them so I guess they are sold as fresh as possible.  That would definitely not fly in Canada.  We stopped for an ice coffee and the lady actually understood my Vietnamese!  She only had to look at me strangely for a few seconds before realizing what I was actually saying :>)  We had a lovely dinner beside the Mekong.  Dan tried the crocodile, that actually came out raw with a little pot full of charcoal and a grill and he roasted it himself!  I think tonight we may try the hotpot.

Today we got up at 5:15 (eek!) to go on a trip to see the floating markets.  We went to Cai Rang floating market first, which is the biggest one in the delta.  It was pretty congested and some of the bigger boats carrying bricks and sand were bumping into the little ones carrying fruit!  It was so interesting to see how busy the river is and how much it is used in daily life.  We were in a small boat all to ourselves which was nice and after seeing the markets we went down some of the narrow canals past homes where we could witness the local lifestyle.  All the kids were happy to see us, always waving from the shore.  The surroundings are very lovely and it is quite unfortunate that the garbage is not handled very well because the canals especially were quite dirty in certain areas and we witnessed large piles of garbage on the riverbank and people thowing huge buckets of garbage into the river.  I hate to see what it might look like in 10 or 20 years.  We got back at 1pm and took a nap before heading out again.  We think tomorrow we will rent a motorbike to see some of the countryside, then probably go the Chau Doc the following day, the border town to Cambodia and arrange to take a boat to Phnom Penh.

Bye for now!

Hanna and Dan xoxo

Dan roasting crocodile meat and adding a little beer Saigon on top for flavour :>)

 Sunrise - we don't see those very often!

 Floating Market

 Dan's attempt to eat an entire Durian - he gave it a good effort, and I was zero help :>)  We ended up giving a lot away to there two little kids who were begging on the street.  At first they were giggling uncontrollably, but they seemed pretty happy about it...we watched them take off and dive into it right away.