The third day of our tour started with a very simple bread-and-butter (ok, cheese also got) breakfast in the hotel in Chau Doc. The French loaf is the kind of bread you would get in Vietnam, not the ones we have from Gardenia. It's very tasty on its own, and I think it keeps longer than our bread loaves coz it's hard and dry.
Had some free time before meeting up with our guide for the morning tour. Saw this guy doing BBQ by the roadside. Actually their BBQ was very tasty (dunno what secret sauce they used) and a popular accompaniment to a rice or noodle meal. But ah... the question is whether you dare to stomach the dust and dirt that landed on it whenever a vehicle passed. Or maybe those were the secret ingredients.
Hand-powered tricycle. Very helpful for war victims who lost their legs to landmines.
Ryan got to sit ship again. Our itinerary for the morning was a visit to 'floating village', 'fish farm' and 'Cham village'. 
Floating houses. Really floating ones, built on wooden platform and tyres underneath. Smart, no need to worry about floods, and got a 'sea view' house all year round. 
Not the kind of lodging if you have motion sickness. But otherwise it was a cool idea. Could move house anytime if got tired of staying at the same place... just hire a boat to tow your house somewhere else. 
Ah so this was what the 'fish farm' about. Since the houses were on water, just add a net beneath and put in some fish, you would get live fish whenever you feel like cooking. Here Alex threw some fish food in...
... and the big splash came.
Those cat fish must have been really hungry. The tourists wowed and clapped. Neat trick.
They even have a pig farm on the river. Tahi babi terus masuk sungai. Hmm I would not try to imagine where the folks take their bath or do their washings.As the boat approached Cham village, Alex told us that some Cham people actually lived on boats all year long.
Oh my! Living on that little boat all year long? So very cham.
The Cham people were remnants from the Kingdom of Champa. They lived a lifestyle very different from the rest of Vietnam, resulting in their isolation. The Cham people were Muslims, and looked very much like our Malays.
Then the kids dressed in Malay costumes. Hey someone please tell UMNO or Perkasa, they might want to do a membership drive here.
The beam at the house marked the highest water levels each year from the flooding of the Mekong delta.
A weaver girl at work.
Shopping time.
Cham lady manning a souvenir stall.
Children pestering us to buy pancakes.
A mosque in the Cham village.
Children attending religious class.
The guys wore sarongs.
The Italian couple who used huge Canon dSLRs. 
Chau Doc town viewed from the river.
The rest of the day was quite boring. We spent about 4 hours on the bus to go back to Can Tho for lunch and change to a bigger bus.
Yikes Can Tho city was flooded again. Gulped a quick lunch, then got into a big bus for another 3 hours drive back to HCMC.
It was Sunday evening. The motorcycle army was also heading back to HCMC for dreadful Monday, after a weekend rest in the countryside. Riding in the rain? No problem. Or rather, no choice.
A wonderful dinner to reward ourselves for enduring the 7-hour journey back to HCMC.Would we do the trip again. NO.
The return trip from Chau Doc was long and tiring. Not worth the effort. A better way would be to go northwards into Phnom Penh, Cambodia by boat, rather than turning back to HCMC. Or just take a 2-day tour up to Can Tho, then base there and do some free-and-easy trips around Can Tho.
More importantly, travelling by tour do not allow you the opportunity to see the countryside upclose. The bus only stops at a few tourist attractions, and then end at a hotel in town. You do not have much time left to explore the countryside on your own. Best way I would say, is make use of the tour's comfortable bus and guide, but extend your stay when you're there. Rent a motorbike, or bicycle, and explore the streets and villages at your own pace, walk thru the fields, peep into people's houses, interact with the locals... eat some food at the roadside with extra dust. That would be really good.
With Ryan lazy to walk... no choice but to go by tour.
1 comment:
Haha! Poor Ryan's legs are only half your length so he walks twice as much as you! Haha!
Good writeup. Love your style....
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