Whirlwind of Mekong Delta

We landed in Saigon this morning, dropped our bags at our hotel, and took a chance on a "guide" who approached us on the street with a list of tour options. As quickly as we came into the chaos of the city, we left it and headed an hour+ out to the Mekong Delta.

Unfortunately, we missed the morning floating market due to our late start (these tours usually start at 7AM), but we putted around in a bright blue wooden boat and visited three islands. We didn't get their names, and really rushed through them, but we got a good taste.

After bouncing around in huge waves and playing chicken with boats much larger than us, our dingy turned off the main river and took us through narrow muddy canals lined with palm (or something) that Jim says is right out of a scene from Apocalypse Now. We stopped on the first island for lunch where we ordered ginger chicken and rice. When I say they gave us the ENTIRE bird diced up into chunks, I am not exaggerating...feet, legs, head, neck and organs. Jim was very chivalrous and gave Addi and I the recognizable chunks while eating the weirder chunks himself. It was delicious but really tested my meat-cut snobbery.

From there we went back to the main waterway and visited another island whose primary product was handmade coconut candy. They gave us a free sample that was still warm and gooey, and we were hooked. It tastes like saltwater taffy...only better. Mmmmm. I wish I could say we will bring some home to share, but we already gobbled down half of it!

The final island had a bunch of very fast crocodiles which you could feed raw meat to and a poor caged up monkey. There were also beautiful flower gardens and Jack Fruit trees. This island, as with the others, was fairly large- with a hotel and bikes and other things- but we weren't given the opportunity to see much.

Again, we started 4 hours late so it wasn't our guide's fault, but we wished we had more time. None of the places we went to are mentioned in our Lonely Planet book, so we know we got an 'off the beaten path experience'. We are glad we took a chance on Mr Minh!

We leave tomorrow and head to Bangkok to visit Greg and Bonnye (yea!) but we could definitely use more time in the Ho Chi Minh surrounds- there is a ton to do here!

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