Meager Markets

This morning we got up at 7am to make use of our last full day in Vietnam. We were picked up at 7:30am (ish) to get a bus to do a Mekong Delta day trip. We had the same driver as yesterday but thankfully a different guide, called Lan.  

Our first stop was to be a floating market, which is made up of people who live on boats selling their products. Lan was telling us the pros and cons of living on the river. He made a comment about how on land no money means no honey, where as on the river you can still have a honey without any money.

We arrived in Cai Be where we were to catch the boat at around 11:20 and we sailed along to the floating market. We had read reviews of the market on TripAdvisor before we booked the trip so we weren't hoping for much as many people said there was by a couple of boats selling their fruit and veg as the market is dwindling due to new bridges being built making it easier to access the main cities. We still managed to be disappointed by what we saw. There was a couple of boats moored up in the middle of the river,  but you wouldn't know they were selling anything. If Lan hadn't have said that was the market I would have thought we missed it out all together. We didn't stop at any of the boats or even get near them, just sailed past slowly. So it was a bit of a disappointing start to the day.

After what was supposed to be the market we stopped at a place to see various rice products being made. We were shown how rice paper, caramel popped rice and rice wine was made, as well as candy made from coconut. We got to try all the different things. Neither of us tried the wine but I thought all the other things were really nice. The coconut sweets were like caramels. Then we walked along the road to a place to try lime and honey tea which was actually bearable. It was very limey.

Next we got back on the boat and sailed to an island where we got on smaller boats, 4 per boat, put on the pointy hats and were rowed by a Vietnamese lady to another island where we had lunch. Lunch was chicken and rice, and soup.  After lunch we had to (motor)cycle 10 minutes down the road to get back on the boat. We sailed down the river which was lined in some parts with houses on stilts and in others with lots of greenery. 

The boat took us to our last stop which was a little homestay where we were treated to fruit (of which neither of us had any) and a few songs by a Vietnamese family. We then hopped back on the boat and went back to the bus for the three hour journey back to the hostel, arriving around 7pm. We went back to the hostel and spent the rest of the evening relaxing.