Vietnam Travel Adventures - Day 2: Cai Be and Vinh Long Mekong Boat Tour

     Once again, me and my friends took a tour with the Sinh Tourist.  Usually, the tours I get uses a van and there are either just us or some other people on board.  But the Sinh Tourist tours are different.  They use tour buses.

     We arrived at the office just when the bus was about to depart.  Heehee.  We were the last ones to board the bus and we were seated at the very rear because the bus was already packed.  Oh well.

     Honestly, I could not remember much about our trip going to Cai Be.  All I remember is that the ride was long, like around 2 hours, and that I slept for most of the time.  Well, the tour guide made a very good effort to keep us awake by telling us general information about Vietnam and the Mekong River.  He even made a pass about Thailand being number 1 in terms of tourism but that Thailand only shows the beauty spots.  Hmm.  Even though the guide was talkative, just like our guide the previous day, his enthusiasm was not enough for us to stay focused...we fell asleep 30 minutes into our travel.  I think I had a good hour of sleep, more than what I needed for a power nap, but you see, sleeping is such a blessing!  I really love to sleep, a lot!

     I think I finally woke up 30 minutes before we reached our drop-off point in Cai Be.  Probably, if only Vietnam looked a little more exotic, then perhaps, I would have been awake our whole travel.  But all I saw were the same rice fields, animals, kinds of houses and structures.  It was as if I was travelling on board a provincial bus headed to anywhere in the Philippines.  The only difference were the signs, in Vietnamese of course.  And there seems to be tombs of some sorts in the middle of the rice fields and farm lands, something which is new to me.

     So, we went straight into a small community which was very much like your typical rural village in the Philippines.  I swear.  Everything was almost alike.  Heehee.  It seemed as if I never left the Philippines.  Anyway, we hopped into a fairly big boat, capable of ferrying around 20 to 30 passengers and we traversed the waters of the Mekong River.

     The river was huge!  It was really, really huge!  And in fairness, the water was clean.  There were villages on the riverbanks and we were able to see the people's daily lives.  It was not much different than the daily life back home, only that there was a floating market of some sorts in the river selling food products.  But really, I was expecting to see a floating market reminiscent of the floating market I saw in Thailand.  The one in Cai Be, though, was entirely different.  It was not touristy at all and the boats carrying the goods are huge!  And since it was already around 10 a.m., the market's busy activities had already died down when we reached the market place.  So, we were only able to see a couple of boats selling watermelons and tapioca.

 We rode a similar boat like these.

  I told you, the Mekong River is huge!

These are some of the boats selling their merchandise at the Cai Be Floating Market.

     Some of the boats we passed by doubles as a house for some.  Also, we saw a couple of small businesses along the riverbanks: a boat repair shop, general merchandise store (sari-sari store), and the likes.

     Villagers' daily life by the Mekong River.

     After some 30 minutes plying the river, and soaking up life at the riverbanks, the tour guide told us that we're going back on land to go to a village for a taste of village life.  We docked our  boat at a quaint village which reminded me so much of the provinces back home: sleepy, tranquil and serene.

     First, the tour guide led us to a restaurant of some sorts where we were allowed to hold up a block of honeybee comb with live bees for picture taking and for some information about royal jelly which the village produces and sells.  We had a taste of their tea and some candied delicacies, similar with the candied delicacies we have back home.  I didn't buy the royal jelly, although I was tempted to.  I should have bought one just for the sake of having bought one.  Besides, its good for the body.  Perhaps, next time.

     Second, the tour guide brought us to a similar shop were a snake wine can be bought, tried and tested.  Nope, didn't try it!  Not ever.  My friend did, though.

     Third, we went to another place and this time, we saw how the rice paper's made.  Rice paper's the one used in wrapping those yummy spring rolls.  Again, the process reminds me of how the Philippines' version, the lumpia wrapper, is made.  We also had a look at how a dried coconut is stripped-off it's skin until only the shell is exposed.  Well, sorry if I say this once more: it is something that is also being done in our country.  In fact, the lumpia wrapper making and the coconut husk stripping can be seen in public markets in the Philippines, even in the city.  Yup. 

     Our last stop in that village is for the making of rice crispies.  Yup!  I've eaten rice crispies as a kid, and we have it either in round balls or in rectangular strips.  It's very local in the Philippines, although I haven't seen one lately.  But it's my first time to see how it's done so there's something new that I learned.  Apparently, the rice's put into a big wok or something with black sand.  Then, the rice will pop while they get swirled in the wok.  Then, they'll be put in a big strainer to separate the sand from the rice, then it's done!  The rice pop, as they call it, will be ready for processing into a snack.

     What I enjoyed most about our village experience were the little kids who were calling to us, saying, "Hello!"  So cute.  Teehee.

     Then, we boarded the boat again, and the tour guide told us that we'd be going next to the restaurant to have our lunch and that it'll take about an hour by boat to get there.  Wow, so we had an hour just sitting on the boat.

     I was sitting by the window, and it was hot but bearable.  My arm was exposed to the sun light; it was nicely warm.  Sunlight was hitting my legs directly, so I put my cap over my legs then I forgot about my exposed arm and dozed off.  When I came to my senses, we're in nowhere.  And, my exposed arm was burned crisp red.  You'd think I had some allergic reactions.  Hehehe.

     So, the ride was all water, of course, with just some strips of land here and there.  Then, we came nearer our destination. And mind you, it looked more provincial than the village but what we saw up close was like a mini paradise!  It was so beautiful!  The garden was so sublime!  Really!  There's even a dragon-vine-shrub whatever plant structure and a whole lot more!  God, this place was beckoning me to take a rest and enjoy the nature. 

 The restaurant was located somewhere near here.

 I'll post some more pictures of the restaurant once I get it from my phone.

I ran out of battery for my camera, so I used my phone.

      So, finally, we had a lunch at a banquet hall, a traditional lunch, they say.  We had a fried spring rolls of some sort which we had to dip into fish sauce...As you know, patis is very salty so I dipped my roll very gently into the saucer.  Then we had rice, yummy veggies, some soup that I could not eat because it had some shellfish, and the main course, a river fish called, Elephant Eared Fish.  Everything was delish!

     Sharing our table was an older lady from Sweden, and a very kawaii, gakkoi college-aged guy from Japan.  His frame is so tiny!  He's really polite and well-mannered and I want to have him as a brother.  Ah, it'll be nice to have an otouto like that.  Apparently, he lived in the Philippines for 3 years and his parents were expats so he knew right away that we're Filipinos.  He said he'd be heading back to Tokyo that night, with everything that's been going on with their country and all.  I mean, it was just a week since the Great Tohoku earthquake, and the young guy said that he needed to go back home.

     Later after lunch, I saw him talking to group of Japanese girls his age.  He now found someone he could relate to more, and hung out with the girls who sat with him on the boat ride going to our next destination, Vinh Long.  If it wasn't Vinh Long, then, my bad for not listening to the guide.  Heehee.  Oh, I thought the Japanese guy would stick with the girls but we guessed that he got scared because one of the girls was staying too close to him.  Hahaha.  Think he got an admirer there.  Later on, we saw the guy saying goodbye to the girls and roamed the streets on his own.  Heh.

     So, what was there to see over at Vinh Long?  Nothing much, just your regular market, the ones very similar to the markets here in Manila.  But at least I saw green mangoes as big as my face, but then again, I've seen and eaten one last year, so it was not novel at all.  We did get to drink our favored iced coffee from a small restaurant.  It was refreshing and cool, plus, it's really cheap!  Just don't stir well if you don't want the sweet taste of condensed milk.

    We only had some 30 minutes in Vinh Long and we were hauled back into the bus to return to Ho Chi Minh.  And oh, we passed by this wonderful bridge donated by the Australians to the people of Vietnam.  It was really pretty seeing it in the horizon.

     Well, I didn't have pictures to post yet of the Vinh Long leg of our tour as I ran out of battery for my camera.  I had a couple of pictures in my phone but I have yet to retrieve them.  I'll put them up sometime this week.

     For the two hour ride back to the City, I slept again.  Heehee.