Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Leaving Saigon we headed briefly south for a one night 'home stay' on the Mekong delta. This is a polite was of saying we had to sleep in a dormitory. With other people - people who would snore and may have other unpleasant habits. Although we only took daypacks, mine was bulging with eye masks, earplugs, and my winceyette pyjamas.
En route to the south we stopped off at a Cai Dai temple - it's a newish religion started in about the 1920's - it's a mixture of Taoism, Christianity, Confucianism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. We all had the chance to drink some Mekong whisky at lunchtime, which certainly made the afternoon go with a swing. It may even have contributed to my willingness to wrestle a 40kg. python later on that day. An opportunity Brian gracefully declined. For dinner we had something called 'Elephant Ear Fish', decorated with all manner of vegetable flourishes. We washed it down with litres of the local beer in the hope it would make us all sleep through the night, not thinking of the consequences of imbibing large quantities of liquid just before bed. Our overnight in a dormitory turned out to be less MalloryTowers and more I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, with all manner of creepy crawlies trying to invade my bed space. It turns out that Mr Jhon is a bit of a snorer, but Bri passed the night without making any unfortunate or embarrassing noises, about which he became rather smug.
Up at the crack of sparrows in the morning we walked to the local market at the end of the lane - a grand total of about 5 stalls selling a variety of vegetables, live chickens and huge lumps of gristle. We then went to a floating market, which was interesting, the sellers tie an example of what they are selling from the boat mast so you can easily pinpoint where to buy your coconuts, fish or sweet potato. There were sadly no boats displaying little cups of mocha coffee with chocolate sprinkles on top, which is what I was longing for.
- comments