Cantho - Vietnam

Well up again at feckin 6am, despite the fact that I only got to sleep at 2.30 or so. Bah humbug. Up we got for our free breakfast of bread & huevos. We also got free tea with ‘milk’ – a gloopy sticky substance that you mix into your tea. It wasn’t too bad actually. For breakfast desert there was green banana. Every time I took a bite out of my sandwich, I had to lean my head forward over the table and into the sunlight. Couple that with the hot tea and within minutes I was sweltering. Vietnam is without a doubt the hottest country we have been in so far.

We were all herded into small buses and driven to the gas station. We thought we had stopped to get gas but actually we were walking the rest of the way. We got into our little boat of loveliness and tupatupatupatupatupped our way off down the river to see the fabulous floating markets of Caing Rai etc

Big floating boats stuffed to the gills with pineapples, jackfruits, watermelons, ginger, and tons of other vegetables, fruits & herbs & spices sell on their wares to the smaller business person in their smaller boats. The trip down the rivers to the markets was fantastic. The weather was scorching and the kids continued to wave and shout hello from the riverbanks. After a while, we donned our Vietnamese cone hats to shelter us from the sun. Between markets, we stopped at a rice noodle making factory to learn how rice noodles were made. Unfortunately I was so busy taking pigtures of the piglets out the back that we missed all the rice noodle pictures. Whoops.

After another trip to a different market and some more fantastic boating, twas back to the ranch for some noodle soup. We were in a group with some Israelis and an Ozzie girl. The tall Israeli guy had a mega beard and totally owned Jim with his beardiness. The other Israeli couple were a bit moany but the Ozzie girl was very nice and chatty.