Holiday in Ho Chi Minh: A Day Trip to the Mekong Delta

Sunday, 7th December 2014

We booked a day tour to the Mekong Delta - just the four of us on a private tour with a guide (comes with many good reviews on the Tripadvisor and seemed very charismatic but...) called Jason.  He may not have lived up to expectations based on his reviews, but we ain't gonna let a bad guide ruin our holiday.  So we had fun... no matter what!

We paid a total of USD220 for the four of us, which includes everything from hotel pick up, transport, boat rides, a vietnamese home cooked lunch with his vietnamese family and tips.

We stopped by the Monkey Bridge at Long Dinh for quick photography and toilet break.  This is along the way to Mekong Delta

Cruising on his boat and relaxing on his brand new hammocks

Rice Paper Making

Rice paper drying on bamboo sticks

Each one of us got to try our hands at making rice paper.  It looked easy but looks are deceiving because it takes delicate skills to lift the rice paper up without breaking the thin skin.  As our reward, we were allowed to eat whatever we made... LOL (I guess that means, it's such bad quality that it can't be sold)

Me at work

Heading towards the Mekong (land) Market.  He did not bring us to the floating market, but I was not disappointed as I was already mentally prepared, and it was still run walking around the market being able to feel and see the activities and produce.

Some of the things sold at the market.  My S95 camera battery was running low so I had to toggle between that and my S4.

Colorful produce on display for sale.

Vegetable produce.  I noticed that the radish and carrots were thin and "organic" looking

Dried seafood

Oval shaped watermelons.  I bet these are very sweet!

Fresh fruits - which we had no chance to buy

Our guide was in such a hurry at the market, and many times we had to keep up with him.  I only had time to quickly aim and snap photos, with no chance to really admire the items for sale.  The only chance I had to purchase something was RICE!  Yup, you heard me.  We bought 2kg of good quality Vietnamese rice to bring back home since we had sufficient luggage space.

Sampling Local Fruits on Mrs Hai's Fruit Boat

We were given different types of fruits to sample but the hygiene of the boat and utensils leave much to be desired aka dirty la!

Sitting on a sampan on quiet canal.  This ride took around 30 minutes and the children were amazed at seeing so many mudskippers along the way

Fooling on the boat... it's a good place to relax and even take 40 winks

Local Lunch at Hoa Khanh Village in Cai Be

We were shown how to cook the Mekong soup - fresh corn, egg and other types of vegetables.  Also very tasty

Elephant ear fish waiting to go into the pot

Steam elephant ear fish (eaten wrapped with fresh lettuce).  First time we eat steam fish with lettuce but it was very very tasty!  

Cooking show!  Vic and Will got to wrap dumplings

The land around the house is planted with many different types of fruits and vegetables, the organic way! You can literally pluck the fruit from the tree, give it a little wipe with your own hands or against your tee shirt, and then bite into it.  Here the kids are plucking star fruits.  The uncle brought them around to pluck guavas and starfruits, and we saw ginger plants too besides others. 

Part of the Purple family... they very very hospitable and friendly although language is a barrier.  Our guide is useless la.  His family were the ones were made us feel at home whereas he was merely an overpaid transporter

Walking back to his Toyota car

The end of the "day trip" to Mekong.