Ho Chi Minh 2016 Day 4: Mekong River

DAY 4: 12 JUN 2016

Local cruising along Mekong River

Our main agenda for the day is the Mekong River tour.

We were expected to depart from The Sinh Tourist office at 7am, but prior to that

we had to do a check in at the ticket counters to obtain our tickets and seat numbers.

It was a two hour bus ride from District 1 to the ferry terminal at Mekong River.

This was no feat to us since we slept all the way...as usual!

We took a motorised boat to see the Cai Be floating market.

According to our guide, this floating market is miniature scale and the 2D1N tour

would bring us to a more bustling floating market - Cai Rang floating market.

As we maneuvered between the numerous boats parked at the floating market,
we spotted different items sold by looking out for the item hung right at the top of the
bamboo pole on the boats.
Watermelon, radish, bananas etc.
And yes, they really did hang a watermelon on a bamboo pole (:

After circling around the floating market, we docked at an island to visit various local shops.
Our first stop was at a bee hive farm.

Bees and honeycomb

Our guide probably went on this tour at least a hundred times because he was able to
lift up the honeycomb rack filled with bees without hesitation.
We were not given any protective gear to wear because the bees were not aggressive at all.
They flew near us, but as long as we keep still, it would just fly off.

We had a taste of the honey tea and snacks, and they were good!
Initially we wanted to purchase the honey tea, but we realised that they were selling
an entire bottle of honey instead.
We didn't have any check-in baggage, and thus, we decided not to purchase it in the end.

Our next stop was at a rice paper making shop.
As usual, our guide explained the various steps of rice paper making as well as rice pops.
The making of rice pops were really interesting with science knowledge embedded in it.
The local had heated up black sand in a huge frying wok and once it hit the right temperature,
he began to pour the rice seeds in.
Because it was so hot, the rice started popping immediately and you can literally see the
white rice pops appear and hear the "pop" sound.

Bottles of snake wine

The shop was selling snake and scorpion wine too.

Kind of scary.

I doubt I would drink any of that in my entire life.

There was also a coconut candy making shop and the candy was really good!

I bought some back home for my family.

Before heading for lunch, we visited the jack fruit and durian garden.

The jack fruits in Vietnam are humongous by the way.

The stems must be strong enough to hold those giants.

Elephant ear fish

We had Vietnamese rice paper roll for lunch.
And the meat to be added into the roll was the famous elephant ear fish.
It was nice and tender, with almost no hidden bones inside the meat.
There was a traditional music performance after lunch too, but we hidden out to the
dock just outside to watch the many boats passing us.

After lunch, we took a 45 minutes boat ride to Vinh Long island.
The streets were bustling with vegetable and fruits stalls alongside with the many
motorbikes and trucks.

Vinh Long

On our way back to the bus, we chanced upon this bridge located in one of the alleys.
We were greeted by a lovely view of the river while walking across the bridge.
It was just like Venice, but the Southeast Asia version of it.

Pseudo Venice

The tour wasn't too bad, but I had initially thought that we would be able to take

a small hand rowed boat through certain parts of the river.
I guess this was included in the cheaper day tour package.

Ultimately, it was a nice getaway from the city.

We arrived back in District 1 at around 5.30pm and we headed for dinner at

The Refinery.

We took a cab this time, since it was quite a distance to walk.

It was a really beautiful restaurant with intricate decor all around.
The prices were steep for Vietnam but reasonable compared to Singapore.
I had the fettuccine with chicken, bacon and mushroom, topped with cream sauce,
which costs 220,000 VND.
It was good and the portion was huge.
I was so stuffed once I emptied my plate.
The dessert special of the day was green tea chocolate mousse.
It was a nice combination and not too overpowering.

So that marks the end of day 4!