South Vietnam - Mekong Delta - Can Tho

I woke up late on Friday.  I really diddle-doddled since I knew I couldn't check into my next hotel 2pm and the bus wasn't going to take that long.  Another mototaxi to the bus station and some general confusion about tickets (the usual).  It never fails that someone is watching out for the whities.  A million buses stopped and left.  Then one arrived that looked exactly the same as all of the others but a guard came by and picked up my bag and waved me over.  My bus I guess.

It was a bed-bus!.  They have seats that are like little bunk-beds - two up, three across.  As I was getting on and showing the driver my ticket (already wrong) he pointed to a basket with plastic bags in it.  He was quite adamant.  So, I dropped my ticket in the basket.  Wrong again.  I had to take my shoes off and put them in a bag.   That's a first.  But ok.   Thank god there was a bottom seat/bed open because I don't think I could have hoisted myself up to the top.  I fell asleep so it was a good ride.

Bed-bus

Arrived in Can Tho to pouring rain.  No mototaxi this time.  Fortunately, the rain stopped by the time I reached my hotel, The World Hotel.  Nice place.  Huge room with high ceilings.  I even have a balcony.

World Hotel Rm 201

Can Tho is the home of the world famous floating markets so my first task was to book a boat to the markets for the next morning (5am!!!!).

Then I wandered into town.  A 20 minute walk to the main drag.  I am getting good at finding my way around.  Maybe I'm not so bad at directions as EVERYONE supposes (including me).

I really wanted to try one of the sandwiches I had seen around (Bahn Mi, I think).  I forgot to tell you that in My Tho I found a sandwich stand and ordered one.  They looked at me funny and gave me a taste of the meat.  It was salty so I smiled and said yes.  However, as I was chewing and they were whipping together my sandwich with lightning speed, the full taste of fermented fish came to me.  I kept smiling and swallowed with great difficulty.  I paid my 10k (50 cents) and chucked the sandwich the first garbage can I saw.  I just couldn't do it. Any way, I found a real Bahn Mi with pork here and had it as I sat on the walkway along the river.

I visited a temple and the tourist market.  I can happily say there is really nothing here that I have wanted to buy so far.  They have thing for kitchy owl patterns.  Hey, fashion tip.  foam rollers as hair accessories are a thing here.  I kid you not.  You'll all be wearing one by next year.

Temple (Oom?)

There are incense coils hanging from all over the ceiling,
it was a bit cloying to say the least.

(I am just going to mention here that there is a wedding going on next door and it is super loud!.  I have to be out of here at 4:30 tomorrow to catch the bus to Phnom Penh so sleeping through Asian Karaoke should be fun.  Let's hope it's another bed-bus so I can sleep in transit.)

I found a real Vietnamese market with veggies and fish.  I realized it was getting dark but the city was really coming alive so I stayed downtown for a couple of hours, just wandering around.

Here are some photos of my first day in Can Tho:

boats waiting for the tourists in the morning

Khmer temple I didn't visit

the city lit up as it got dark

 Next morning, up at 4:30 for 5am pickup for a 7 hr boat tour of the floating markets.  There were two Aussies with me.  They were on a year travelling soon after graduating high school so they were so young.

Here are a bunch of pictures of the first market.  This one is more wholesale, little boats buying bulk veggies.  Each market boat attaches whatever they are selling to a pole.  so, lots of flying watermelons, pineapples, carrots etc.:

Very civilized.  Our first boat was selling coffee.  Yes please.

Floating market dog

Next market was small boats selling smaller amounts of fruit, mostly to tourists. I think there were more tourists than sellers.  We got some tiny bananas and mangos.

At some point, we stopped at a noodle making factory.  Unlike my previous river tour, they actually made noodles here but WAAAAYY more interesting was a pack of puppies in a kennel.

Hello!

The best part was this poor kitten in with the puppies.  The dogs just kept harassing her.
She hadn't figured out that she could just climb out the open top. 
Just wait puppies, she will get the last laugh!

Then we stopped for lunch at 10am and I had my first beer of this trip.  Can't eat with Aussies and not have a beer!

18 year old, on their phones even as we have breakfast beer.

(I am going to try to sleep now - unlikely with very bad karaoke at full, window shaking volume).

(Yikes, two days later, let's finish this up)

Back when I first arrived, remember my soup with the rat under the table, during that meal, everyone on the street was watching a soccer game and getting very excited.  It turns out that night, Vietnam made it into the finals of the Asia Cup, a big deal apparently.  Well, this was the finals night.

You'll need a flag to celebrate!

Asia Cup dog

Everyone was talking about the game so I decided to head back into town to find a place to eat and watch it on tv.  I found a restaurant that is actually in Lonely Planet as cheap and good that wasn't crammed to the rafters like the bars were but it had a tv on.  So I plunked myself down, ordered their specialty (make your own spring roll) and watched the loooooooooooooooong game.   I really nursed my beer so I could keep my awesome seat as the place filled up.

Making my own salad roll

I may have been sitting at the staff table.
The field is white becasue it was snowing so hard in China where they were playing

Spoiler alert for those of you who have it taped - Vietnam lost. But that did not stop the city from celebrating like crazy.  This is how you lose a big game people (I am looking at you Vancouver).  I can only imagine if they had won!

They streets became a mayhem of horns and bikes and flags.

Next morning, I left for Cambodia.  I am finishing this up from Phnom Penh just before I get ready to leave for the bus to Siem Reap (Angkor Wat).