First full day in Mekong Delta, staying at Happy Family Guesthouse (Thuyan Guesthouse). We arrived yesterday after a 3 hr bus trip from HCMC. C woke #uo yesterday morning not feel all that well, and we were wondering how the transfer was going to go. A dip into our travel medicine bag fixed things pretty quickly though. Our first step for the day was to get to the bus station. We decided to organise a pick up by the bus company. We organised this and the ticket through Tong, our host in the Mekong. Ended up that the pick up was by motor bikes, and with C still not 100% we decided to taxi instead. As it turned out the only way to get to the Happy Family Guesthouse at the other end was by motor bike along a couple of kms of narrow pathway. First hitch of the holiday happened when we arrived. We booked the riverside hut but were escorted to a basic small room. Tong was very apologetic when he realised his mistake in double booking the riverside hut. We stayed, and have a superior double room for two nights until the hut is free.
Today we visited the Cai Be floating markets. Unfortunately there is not much left floating as all the trading is now done at the new shoreside markets. We stopped at a boat for drinks and fruit, but this was more a tourist attraction than a regular part of the markets. Anyway the market was still interesting with the variety of fruits and produce, including skinned frogs still twitching, snakes, eels, live poultry ready for the chopping block, fresh meat and a large variety of seafood.
The tour organised by Tong included a candy factory and honey centre. Pleasant out on the water with the breeze as the weather is still pretty hot and humid.
There is a family from Australia staying at the resort as well. The guy was saying that they started their trip in Hanoi where it was also unseasonably hot. An Australian living in Hanoi said that the summer was extreme this year, temperatures in the 40s for long periods.
Had an afternoon nap and then tried a bit of fishing local style. Tong again got a bit carried away with his promises. It seems like we were the first guests to take them up on the offer of fishing listed in the their activities. Got 3 small fish, too small to keep.
Anyway, that's all for now. Finishing the day with a cold beer in front of our room. Hopefully tomorrow we will have a better view from our room.