So its my turn at the blog again! You'd get a slightly different version of below events from Sarah no doubt, but sure here we go!
We left by bus from Saigon - it was bloody hot even at 7am. Three hours later we arrived at a port to be shuffled onto small wooden boats and brought to Cai Be floating market. I always feel like I'm back in school on these packaged trips. The desire to mess and laugh at teacher/guide increases dramatically. So like a giddy 14 year old I hopped on and we floated down the Mekong towards a flotilla of merchant ships selling their wares (which were advertised/ hung from bamboo poles like carrots on sticks - in fact there were carrots on sticks on some).
Anyway, having passed this shower of messers (lazing on hammocks in their house boats) we arrived at An Binh Island to be shown in no uncertain terms how rice paper and all things rice sweets are made. I also managed a few gulps of snake wine - serious hooch distilled in jars with whole pythons. Taaaasty.
At this stage my fellow naughty schoolchildren and I had rumbly tums (they were mostly English public schoolies) so to quell any notion of an uprising we were escorted off the boat and through a maze of muddy paths to a restaurant for lunch. I got the chance to hold (gingerly!) a python for a few minutes afterwards.
Back to the boat/bus/air baloon (I wish)/bloody boat again-combo towards our ultimate destination for the day - a much anticipated and indeed much lauded 'floating' hotel in Sa Dec. I'll be blunt, I think 'Shit' Hotel would have been a much better name for the place. However, weary bodies climbed into weary beds (complete with mozzy nets) at the behest of teacher's instructions to be at breakfast at 6.30am sharp. Uuughgh.
The following morning I was up at 5am thanks to the chopper boats outside making kamikze runs towards our 'floating room' only to be swept away at the last minute by the great Mekong current. Having cursed them, I then thanked them secretly for allowing me to see dawn over the river bank. Then I cursed them again.
Our first stop of the day (having once again boarded the sampan of course) was one of the many fish farms/floating abodes along the river. These are incredible structures -wooden houses kept afloat by plastic barrels and resting on top of giant bamboo cages that are full to the brim with fishies. We threw fish pellets through a 6*6 hole in the floor outside a family living room which caused a wild feeding frenzy and kept us entertained for a few minutes. I clambered over a slippery plank to the neighbouring house to see a huge fish grinding machine. The stink was incredible. Meanwhile our sampan man disappeared for a breakfrast roll, a Star and to refill the tank from a floating Maxol up the river.
Delighted to see him (and our bags) again off we set towards a Cham minority village. The Cham's (a loose relative of the Chav's) number only about 2,000 and most of them live in stilted bamboo huts here. They are Muslim, so we were shown through the village and to the local Mosque. Grateful to be given 'free time to buy scarves' we hurried straight past said peddlers back towards the boat. The pathway to and from the village from the riverfront was fairly a tenuous wooden stilted jobby that Sarah to her athletic credit navigated like a mountain goat.
The terrain got a bit more interesting after that as we made our way towards the Cambodian border at Chau Doc. The large single swath of chocolatey water eventually splintered off into narrow channels separated in some instances by only a few feet of mud and hanging trees. I went upstairs to a small decking area outside and away from the noise of the engine, read a bit, and looked forward to country no. 5!
We left by bus from Saigon - it was bloody hot even at 7am. Three hours later we arrived at a port to be shuffled onto small wooden boats and brought to Cai Be floating market. I always feel like I'm back in school on these packaged trips. The desire to mess and laugh at teacher/guide increases dramatically. So like a giddy 14 year old I hopped on and we floated down the Mekong towards a flotilla of merchant ships selling their wares (which were advertised/ hung from bamboo poles like carrots on sticks - in fact there were carrots on sticks on some).
Anyway, having passed this shower of messers (lazing on hammocks in their house boats) we arrived at An Binh Island to be shown in no uncertain terms how rice paper and all things rice sweets are made. I also managed a few gulps of snake wine - serious hooch distilled in jars with whole pythons. Taaaasty.
At this stage my fellow naughty schoolchildren and I had rumbly tums (they were mostly English public schoolies) so to quell any notion of an uprising we were escorted off the boat and through a maze of muddy paths to a restaurant for lunch. I got the chance to hold (gingerly!) a python for a few minutes afterwards.
Back to the boat/bus/air baloon (I wish)/bloody boat again-combo towards our ultimate destination for the day - a much anticipated and indeed much lauded 'floating' hotel in Sa Dec. I'll be blunt, I think 'Shit' Hotel would have been a much better name for the place. However, weary bodies climbed into weary beds (complete with mozzy nets) at the behest of teacher's instructions to be at breakfast at 6.30am sharp. Uuughgh.
The following morning I was up at 5am thanks to the chopper boats outside making kamikze runs towards our 'floating room' only to be swept away at the last minute by the great Mekong current. Having cursed them, I then thanked them secretly for allowing me to see dawn over the river bank. Then I cursed them again.
Our first stop of the day (having once again boarded the sampan of course) was one of the many fish farms/floating abodes along the river. These are incredible structures -wooden houses kept afloat by plastic barrels and resting on top of giant bamboo cages that are full to the brim with fishies. We threw fish pellets through a 6*6 hole in the floor outside a family living room which caused a wild feeding frenzy and kept us entertained for a few minutes. I clambered over a slippery plank to the neighbouring house to see a huge fish grinding machine. The stink was incredible. Meanwhile our sampan man disappeared for a breakfrast roll, a Star and to refill the tank from a floating Maxol up the river.
Delighted to see him (and our bags) again off we set towards a Cham minority village. The Cham's (a loose relative of the Chav's) number only about 2,000 and most of them live in stilted bamboo huts here. They are Muslim, so we were shown through the village and to the local Mosque. Grateful to be given 'free time to buy scarves' we hurried straight past said peddlers back towards the boat. The pathway to and from the village from the riverfront was fairly a tenuous wooden stilted jobby that Sarah to her athletic credit navigated like a mountain goat.
The terrain got a bit more interesting after that as we made our way towards the Cambodian border at Chau Doc. The large single swath of chocolatey water eventually splintered off into narrow channels separated in some instances by only a few feet of mud and hanging trees. I went upstairs to a small decking area outside and away from the noise of the engine, read a bit, and looked forward to country no. 5!
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