Whistle Stop Tour of Mekong Delta

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We booked a short 2 day tour of the Mekong Delta from a Travellers Cafe on the same street as our Hotel for only USD15 pp which included the overnight hotel in Cathou.

We spent our first day taking a bus and boat to Ben Tre where we visited a Cocunut Candy factory, which was basically a bamboo and straw structure where they prepared the entire candy by hand - delicious too.

long bamboo poles sticking up in the air with an example of their wares fixed to it so people could see who was selling

Spent the night in a really dodgy 'hotel' which was quite scruffy.  The furniture was held up on bricks and one of our two beds collapsed when Lee sat on it - he hasn't put on that much weight since we left the UK!  Out came the sleeping sacks and we had a good nights sleep until around 1am when the rains came and we must have had a corregated iron roof as the noise was deafening.  After about an hour the rains stopped and had a good nights sleep.

After a breakfast of baguette (which the French brought to Vietnam and we are eternally grateful), jam and butter we took a boat ride to a floating market about 1 hour away on the Mekong River.  It was so interesting to see the local community buying and selling their wares right on the river.  The big boats which had the most merchandise had long bamboo poles sticking up in the air with an example of their wares fixed to it so people could see who was selling what - very organised!  The boats have to pay VND5,000 per day to enable them to sell at the market which is around 30cents as the government are trying to stop the market as its polluting the river.  However, its the tourists that keep the market from being banned which we are grateful for.  Some of our boat bought freshly cut pineapple for VND5,000 which was excellent value.