Hot and steamy in the Mekong Delta

It's only been two days but we're already way behind on our reporting - yesterday waking up at 6am and having breakfast at our hotel, we set out to re-explore Ho Chi Minh City. We started at the Ben Than Markets where George bought some long sleeved tops to ward off mosquitos (and probably paid way too much for them too).

Failing any other ideas, we did a mammoth walk to the botanical gardens, which has a zoo in the middle of it. Although we're not generally zoo fans, and the enclosures seemed way too small, the gardens themselves were quite cool, and we saw some absolutely enormous hippos and crocodiles, among other animals.

After this we walked back to our general area, stopping for some pho on the way (meat, vermicelli noodles and lots of fresh herbs and bean sprouts in tasty stock). Being completely buggered from the sun we got an overpriced fruit smoothie in an air conditioned chain coffee shop before recommencing our wandering in an area we hadn't yet explored. This turned out to be a mistake and an experience in itself, as we unintentionally wandered into some very narrow alleyways that were actually people's houses. We were getting some funny looks ranging from confusion to outright hostility (and fair enough since we could see right into their houses), so we got out of there as quickly as we could and went back to touristville for a bracing beer or 4. After this experience we've come to the conclusion that while hanging around the touristy areas seems lame for marginally intrepid travellers, that's actually where the locals want us to be!

After a few beers we went back to our hotel for showers and a quick lie down before heading out for dinner at a kick arse restaurant called Lemongrass. We actually ate there last time we were here but it was so good that we had to go back, and it didn't disappoint. The common staple of a George & Bec holiday is good food, and this place is one of the best anywhere. We started with cold rolls, then moved onto minced prawns on sugar cane, which you wrap in lettuce leaves with lots of basil and vermicelli noodles. We followed this with ginger chicken, steamed fish in a clay pot and sauteed morning glory (a green vegetable that's kind of like Chinese broccoli). It was all so good, and it cost us $US31 - expensive by Vietnamese standards, but you couldn't find anything that good in Australia for that little.

This morning we started bright and early and with a minor fiasco thrown in for good measure. The tour company was supposed to pick us up from the hotel at 7am, and then at about 10 past a guy walked up and gestured to us, looked at our tour voucher and led us to his car out on the street. We were a little confused because we thought it would be the bus that picked us up, but nevertheless we loaded our luggage in the back, got in and were on our way. We'd been driving for about 10 minutes when the guy got a call on his mobile, then drove us back to the hotel. Now utterly confused, we followed him back down to the hotel, where he asked another couple if they were going to the airport. We said that we weren't going to the airport and he just pointed upstairs at the hotel, where the tour guide was waiting for us - somehow this guy (actually a taxi driver) had picked up the wrong people, although god knows what he thought the voucher was that we'd handed him.

So, our problems sorted, the tour bus took us down to the river to the speedboat which took us up the Mekong River for about 3 hours before stopping at a small island where they make honey. There was also a giant python that they handed around for people to have photos taken with, although we declined to get anywhere near the great bloody thing.

We then got on a different boat which took us to a different island where we were shown how to make coconut candy. They also let us try snake wine, which is a revolting alcohol concoction with a dead snake curled up in it. It was gross. After this we were taken down a narrow river channel in rowboats, then got back on the boat and were taken to yet another island, where we had a relatively average lunch followed by some free time to ride around the island on bicycles. We did a bit of this, although as I was paranoid about falling off and getting flattened by a scooter, we didn't go for too long.

The rest of the day was a very long shambles of a boat ride, followed by a bus ride, ferry ride, and another bus ride, and a few aggro tourists mixed in there. We finally arrived at our hotel just before 7 and went out for dinner down by the river. Since we're sweaty and hot and bloody buggered after a 12 hour day, we're now heading back to our hotel at 8.30 to have showers and lie in our air conditioned room preparing for another 6am start tomorrow.

One thing that can be said about these early starts is that we're not drinking anywhere near as much as we usually do - although I think our boat tomorrow will have drinks on board, so I don't know how long that can last!

Ciao