22 Jan. Mekong floating village

This homestay was much nicer.

Our room

We were ready at 6.30 for our boat which arrived 15 minutes later. While waiting for the boat I asked Tram if there wad any municipal service to collect rubbish. There isn't, so everyone just throws it all into the river. Scary. She said there was a huge die off of fish and a big meeting followed but the government named anything being printed so they cover it up. She said environmental issues were not a government priority.

The market was close.

 We got coffee and bahn mi (baguettes). They only had pork, so I just had cucumber, coriander, chili and sauce in mine. Was tasty.

Coffee

Bahn Mi

We walked around a market which I didn't really enjoy. Too crowded and too many dead or dying creatures. A lady sorting next to our boat when we returned lifted a small cage out the water in which she drowning mice. I've had enough of it all now.

Tiny puppy at our homestay.

Turns out the puppy was rescued by a guide the day before and his driver wouldn't let him being it on the car, but our driver is cool, so Lucy, the other guide is bringing him to Ho Chi Minh City. I spent the first hour taking fleas off him before stopping for lunch. But first a walk, then boat ride to see how they make rice paper and toffees from the coconut. I bought one pack..wanted more but we had to keep enough for a tip.

Making rice paper

Strong men putting poles in the water to tie boats to

Lucy chewed some meat to feed the puppy bit he's so little he is still choking on it and while she held his mourn open I used my finger to get the food out that was stuck on his pallet.

Said goodbye to Tram, then Lucy, puppy and the Austrian ladies were with us to the airport. Goodbye Vietnam!

21 Jan. Mekong Delta

We woke early so we could cycle to the starving dog is seen. I a piece of fish and two chicken bones. He was hungry it was heartbreaking.

Then Roy and I cycled to the local market, but I got bored and went back to the homestay to shower and get ready for breakfast.  For the mornings activities we walked back to the market, this fine with the Austrian mother and daughter and our two guides. Then a noisy boat trip for about an hour. Very pretty.

Our boat driver cut off s ome water coconuts for us to taste. Not very nice.

I was too hot and bothered after the loud noisy ride without shade so skipped going kyaking. Apparently most guests do. So it's been rather a slow, uninteresting day. At least we got meat at lunch, and I managed to fill a container. Cycled the 2km to the dog who gratefully gobbled it all up, including the butter and cheese wedge I'd saved from packed breakfasts along the trip. One happy dog for a few hours. How can people be so cruel. I mentioned to the other guide what I was doing and she said she has asked them why their dog is so thin and they said it's old and doesn't want to eat. She said she just believed then but will now take it food when she is on tour here. So hopefully his life improves slightly. The owners were outside this time and saw me and while I've probably shamed them by doing this I'm glad. I hope they feel bad....They did not look particularly poor.

In the afternoon we drove further into the mekong delta, taking a ferry accross the Mekong.

We passed a really busy market with loads of people on motorcycles going in and out.

We reached our homestay just before dark, near Cantho, the third largest city in Vietnam. The homestay was along the river. I went for a short walk before dinner and got invited to join some drunk Vietnamese men drink beer. I declined.

Our homestay has a pretty crocodile and a pet python in 2 tiny cages. Poor creatures.

20th Jan. Mekong

Cat Tien to Mekong

After breakfast we took the ferry over the river and met our driver from "Ethnic travel" who had been there since the night before. Still not sure if this was a misunderstanding or whether he did that to be on time.
We drove to Ho Chi Minh City where our guide, Tram, joined us. The drive was still a few hours south a lunch stop.

Mekong delta is beautiful. And again we have lucked it so well with our timing. This entire town is one big nursery and because it's almost the new year in Vietnam, everyone has planned for the plants to flower now. It's one explosion of colour!

We arrived at our homestay and as seems the pattern with Ethnic, we were disappointed. They get most things right but choose really nasty accommodation. It's cheap here. Roy found a beautiful place on the river for R300 a night and asked them to our us there and we'd pay the difference but they have their set grotty places they use. Crazy! Anyway, we'll must try enjoy it anyway.

We went on a lovely cycle, about 5km around town. Just flowers, river and more flowers!

Honestly, the whole town looks just like this.

Palm plantation

 82% of Vietnam is Buddhist, but this is a predominantly Catholic town. This "church" made me smile.

Now dinner.

19th Jan. Crocodile lake

We were woken by someone sweeping outside and knocking onto our wall. I think this is how they make sure we don't stay too late. It was about 6.15. Our "guide" left at 6.30 with the other guests and we enjoyed the early morning at the lake. A croc was hanging around. George didn't have breakfast (we had pho, the noodle soup with an egg) but walked back with us.

He is a dermatologist with four children and he spoke of his wife so I'm not sure if she passed away or just didn't feel like traveling. They met in Johannesburg many years ago and traveled through Africa. His one daughter lives with her family, north of Minnesota, where after a long drive, you have to walk 45 mins to get to their house. She will home school her 3 children. Very cool.

Anyway, we saw a few monkeys, then on the cycle home George saw a would pig cross the road which I missed, but we heard it having a big fight with another pig. Perhaps they disagreed on the fastest route out.
The animals in this park are all too scared. Pigs, monkeys etc. Our guide saw evidence of traps. Only tourists and rangers are here!

We spent the afternoon just relaxing. I fell into a deep sleep, read a while and we shared a bottle of Diemersdal I've nursed since Cape Town.

 

Our room

I noticed my first leech bite. Not sure when our how it came off, but it bled for ages!

Pic taken the following evening

We are now having dinner at the lodge.

18th Jan. Gibbons and Crocodile lake

We were collected at 5, and walked a few meters into the jungle where we sat on the roots of this big tree, in the dark, and listened to the forest wake up.

The guide came to say she'd found the Gibbons and we walked to find them. Soon we saw them high, high up in the trees. We were fortunate that they did their loud morning calls...for about 45 minutes, which was magical.

Back to the lodge for breakfast.

After breakfast we went across to the island to visit the primate rehabilitation centre.

In the afternoon we cycled a few kilometers, seeing quite a few monkeys on the way. 

We'd been undecided whether to use one of the guides from the lodge as it was very expensive, but agreed to use him in the end. What a mistake! He was taking another couple too and we had to dawdle so that we met them at the start of the path at 3.30. But then....the guide decided to first show us a cave first. Half an hour of struggling through the jungle, obviously getting lost a few times only to see a dull cave and have to do the half hour back to the start of the walk. After the early morning and long cycle I was already feeling a bit tired. And now this sillly guide had not left us enough time, so we ended up doing the 5km walk at high speed, rushing to arrive at the lake before dark, when all we wanted was a nice walk through the jungle and to enjoy the late afternoon and sunset at the lake. I was feeling pretty annoyed when we arrived as it was almost totally dark - and we'd paid a large fee for this! Grrr!

Fortunately we took two cans of tonic and some gin and my mood improved slightly.

Dinner was very good...fish from out of the lake (yep, a park, but they still fish).

Didn't take any pics at the lake on my phone. Sorry.

We saw THE biggest gecko! Apparently these are the biggest in the world. He was beautiful. We also had 2 lovely big frogs in our room. There were also crocodiles in the lake.

I'll add pictures later when I can get off the other cameras.

We went on a night walk with our guide, an annoying Dutch couple and George, the American from Minesota. He was nice. The couple seemed to think the guide was only for them and refused to ever let us walk behind him. If he did see an insect or anything, by the time we got there he'd finished saying what it was and they didn't move along so we could all see. I gave up after an hour and just did my own looking. Soon after we called it a day and left them and went to bed. They didn't see anything except some eyes of buck back at the lake. We were exhausted!