From Mytho To Ho Chi Minh City

We didn’t listen to our guide properly yesterday as we jumped on the back of the motorcycles, so neither of us knew what time kick off was this morning. We set the alarm for 6am as usual just in case pick up time was 7am. So at 6.45 we went in search of breakfast. We strolled down the road and stumbled across tonnes of Vietnamese out playing football in the cool morning air, tonnes more on bikes going places & tonnes more having tea & coffee. We found a lady dealing baguettes with meat & what not in them and we got two to take away. We decided then to take the two back to our room and wait for instruction. That way if we were being picked up at 7, we would be ready and if we were being picked up later, we would at least be in the room.

So I ate a porky type roll and Jim promptly fell asleep. I started to read Porno (the book by Irvine Welsh – not the mag (if there is one) ) And then I fell asleep. :0

The alarm woke us up at 9.30 and we peeked outside to see what the gringos outside were up to. They were all piling into a bus but the lady told us we were not being picked up until 10.30 so we lolled about a bit more.

Finally our guide arrived and almost instantaneously, Jim had to use the jaxx. (Jim always has to use the jaxx as soon as we are just about to leave – it usually leaves me waiting around biting my nails while people ask me ‘where is your friend??’ )) We all piled onto another boat and off we went for another day of Mekong River travelling.

First up we went to a coconut candy-making factory. Mm mmm mmm. We all got to taste the candy, then we all got to taste some banana rice whiskey (which is apparently good for your back).. now I had a sore back and was tempted to buy a bottle, but Jim put the spending reigns on .. he he.

After the whiskey tasting, we were shown to the Bee keeping area. A poor girl (obviously oblivious to the bees and them to her) picked up a big sheet of honeycomb covered in bees and posed for pictures. We were given some honey tea, which had some ‘kampot’ fruit squeezed into it (we can’t remember the proper name). But the honey tea was delicious. Then we were given some rice wine or something, which tasted like Ecuador Jungle Firewater!!

Soon after a young chappie came around with a python on him. A pretty big python. Maybe two metres or so. Uuuuhhhooorrggghh – I secretly said. He started to pass the python round the shoulders of the group, so they could take pictures. The guide said.. “ this python, he young, he friendly, he not poisonous, he not bite, he only baby,” etc etc
Now I don’t know if any of you have ever watched Animal Planet or Discovery Channel, but there is no such thing as a pet python. They are wild animals. They CANNOT be tamed.

So everyone was taking an auld bash at the python. I didn’t really want to have the yoke on me, but when the auld French dear had him around her, I could hardly say no now could I?? The python was very well behaved. I wished I had had him for a bit longer as it was so quick, it seemed like a dream (although that could have been the banana whiskey!! ) but on he went. He felt very weird, very heavy, very cool but very weird!
Just then a huge group came in behind us and we were glad to have such a small group and to be on our way.

So off back to the boat and onto the next stop, which was lunch on Turtle Island. The turtle is a symbol of long life. We were shepherded into this restaurant and offered the choice of pork or spring rolls. We got one of each. At this stage again, my stomach was sore. My stomach seems to be sore every time I eat something and I have myself worried to death with ridiculousness whilst reading all the ailments in the Lonely Planet. I think I may just have had a bad dinner and am still suffering a bit from it. Either way I passed my spring rolls to Jim as I was a bit ill. But once I was a bit cooler back on the boat I felt better. The heat in Vietnam is unbelievable. I’ve been on truntymillion sun holidays and I’ve spent hours sunbathing in the past (though no more) and I would consider myself to be able to handle the heat. And if I was sunbathing in it, I probably could. But trying to conduct a tour or normal trekking around stuff in this heat (it is at LEAST 32 ) is pretty uncomfortable. Sitting in a seat involves sweating bucket loads. Walking at least gives some sort of breeze. August in South Vietnam is pretty darn hot. God knows how the VC or the Americans managed to conduct any sort of reconnaissance or any semblance of sanity in this heat.

Anywho after lunch we were brought to smaller unmotorised boats and were taxied down a small river that was covered overhead with coconut leaves. I was reminded of the jungle once again and how great the jungle was and how much I liked the jungly type life.

Our next stop was an ‘orchard’. We were all sat down at a table with a huge selection of fruit to choose from. We tucked in and a while later, we were treated to some Vietnamese folk songs sung by young to middle aged Vietnamese ladies, backed up by a small band made up of very tall skinny Vietnamese men.

Our guide gave us some great info on the folk songs. He said they were mostly to do with the history of Vietnam – the good times and the bad. They played an important role in educating both the children of Vietnam and those Vietnamese who couldn’t afford to go to school. The folk songs passed on the history of the country.
Then we were given time to ‘mingle with the local people’ - i.e. go to their stalls and buy something from them.

After this, it was back to the boat and back to the bus. We were brought to the ‘beautiful bonsai gardens’, which were far from beautiful. Plus there were some monkeys who were trapped in cages and had nowhere to go and no trees or anything. It was quite sad.

Off on the bus to Ho Chi Minh City. We arrived at about 6 and trekked off to a hotel, that DIDN:T have holes in the wall and had AIR CON and HOT WATER and lots of other things that I had been missing in the last few weeks. It’s $13 dollars a night (as opposed to 6 dollars for the cheapest but I don’t care)! .

We went out to ‘Good Morning Vietnam’ for some expensive western grub and then bought a bottle of apple vodka.
Booya.