Tuesday November 21st
Today is the start of our journey home geographically from the furthest south we've been, and anybody looking at a map can see it's quite a straight road (Can Tho, Phnom Penh, Siem Riep, Bangkok). Today we stay in the delta with a four hour boat trip in a smaller craft around the rivers surrounding Can Tho.
Todays boat is an open one seating about 12, with one of the typical outboard motors with a long drive shaft between engine and propeller giving maximum manoeverability. We begin by passing a floating market where wholesalers in big boats trade with retailers and customers in smaller craft. Typically the big boats specialize in a few types of fruit, veggies or fish so the customers travel from one to another. The scene is completed by passing boats selling breakfast and drinks.
From here we took the roads less travelled (other than tourist boats one suspects) down small canals for a pleasant ride, disturbed only by the sputtering of the two-stroke engine powering us. We took a break at a fruit growing farm to sample the local bananas, pinapple and longans (a lychee like fruit very popular in these parts) and as Tim wandered around looking at the trees our guide Tuc called him over to try the local hooch: rice wine (rather a misnomer for this firewater) with longans added to mellow the flavor. We then spent a pleasant half hour with the farmer, the boat driver (not drinking I hasten to add) and a Korean guy on our tour finishing the bottle.
Back on the boat we moved back out to a larger river and took in the next visit of our tour, to a rice factory. Here a machine husks, polishes and sorts the rice amid huge piles of full sacks and in an atmosphere of dust and noise that would swiftly draw the attention of the health and safety authorities back home. Nothing goes to waste in the process, husks are burned, the dust from polishing the brown rice goes in pig feed, small broken pieces are eaten by chickens and bigger pieces boiled down for rice paper and wine. Tuc is clearly a man who likes a drink and the owner is soon passing out his home made rice wine... the unmellowed fire water proving more difficult to drink than that made with longans.
From here we headed back to Can Tho, with three hours to look around before our bus arrives to take us one to Chau Doc. We spend the time wandering the streets and trying out the street food, while Tracy takes a break for a while reading under a tree at the river side. The ride to Chau Doc is largely uneventful though we get some good views of flooded fields and extensive canal systems. By the time we arrive in what appears to be a compact and pleasant town we are ready for food and bed so we find a nearby "fake meat"vegetarian restaurant for our last full Vietnamese meal.
Todays boat is an open one seating about 12, with one of the typical outboard motors with a long drive shaft between engine and propeller giving maximum manoeverability. We begin by passing a floating market where wholesalers in big boats trade with retailers and customers in smaller craft. Typically the big boats specialize in a few types of fruit, veggies or fish so the customers travel from one to another. The scene is completed by passing boats selling breakfast and drinks.
From here we took the roads less travelled (other than tourist boats one suspects) down small canals for a pleasant ride, disturbed only by the sputtering of the two-stroke engine powering us. We took a break at a fruit growing farm to sample the local bananas, pinapple and longans (a lychee like fruit very popular in these parts) and as Tim wandered around looking at the trees our guide Tuc called him over to try the local hooch: rice wine (rather a misnomer for this firewater) with longans added to mellow the flavor. We then spent a pleasant half hour with the farmer, the boat driver (not drinking I hasten to add) and a Korean guy on our tour finishing the bottle.
Back on the boat we moved back out to a larger river and took in the next visit of our tour, to a rice factory. Here a machine husks, polishes and sorts the rice amid huge piles of full sacks and in an atmosphere of dust and noise that would swiftly draw the attention of the health and safety authorities back home. Nothing goes to waste in the process, husks are burned, the dust from polishing the brown rice goes in pig feed, small broken pieces are eaten by chickens and bigger pieces boiled down for rice paper and wine. Tuc is clearly a man who likes a drink and the owner is soon passing out his home made rice wine... the unmellowed fire water proving more difficult to drink than that made with longans.
From here we headed back to Can Tho, with three hours to look around before our bus arrives to take us one to Chau Doc. We spend the time wandering the streets and trying out the street food, while Tracy takes a break for a while reading under a tree at the river side. The ride to Chau Doc is largely uneventful though we get some good views of flooded fields and extensive canal systems. By the time we arrive in what appears to be a compact and pleasant town we are ready for food and bed so we find a nearby "fake meat"vegetarian restaurant for our last full Vietnamese meal.
posted by Tim | 6:39 PM
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