Day 9 Mekong delta and Coconut Island
Today was well worth the getting up early for. We left the hotel on our pink bus at 8am. The first seat i sat on collapsed on me so can only think the diet is not going too well! We travelled on the new highway which was gifted by Japan. The down side is there is a toll. The highway cuts right through the middle of the rice and fruit growing fields of the farmers and there is a fence to keep both livestock and humans safe. Unfortunately the farmers feel they need a short cut so cut into the fence to cross the highway. This has disasterous results, especially if they have been on the rice wine! Our first stop today was at the Happy Buddha temple. A beautiful oasis in the middle of workers shacks and fields. There were several Buddhas. The newest one is only 2years old and he is the sitting, smiling one. Enormous he is towering over us. Behind him was the more Indian reclining Buddha and across the road is a standing Buddha. They are all white and looked pretty impressive next to the blue sky. Just by the gate is a painted female Buddha – i didn’t know there was one so there you go! The temple and gardens were serene; full of shrubs all flowering. I took a photo of a bench which was one amongst many that were sponsored by Wrigleys doublemint. Their logo was on the bench! Other benches were sponsored by individuals or companies too. We moved on to the Mekong river where we boarded another junk type boat with rattan double seats which took us across to Coconut island. We were in for a treat – we were shown how the coconut is split open, disected, pressed, desiccated and made into sweets/fancy goods and goodness knows what. We were given samples of the sweets and then banana, coconut and snake ( eerrr!!!) Wine. The snake was still in the bottle so you can imagine the state of me with my absolute phobia of snakes! Not my favourite bit either when we were given the chance to hold a snake – i gave the whole thing a huge swerve! We then walked across the island in the searing heat until we reached a watering hole. It was a real treat. We were given samples of pineapple, jack fruit, mango, papaya and one i can’t remember that resembled a grapefruit but was plumper and milder. We were given a salt mixture to eat the unknown fruit and the pineapple with – surprisingly nice. With this we had tea with honey and kumquat squeezed into it. A bit like lemsip so good for my cold! Some local muscians and singers came to entertain us which was lovely. They sang old langsyne and then if your’e happy and you know it clap your hands!
We left there reluctantly but refreshed and headed for the coconut groves and backwaters. We were put into some small punt like boats – 4 in each boat- and were paddled along in the peace and silence until we reached the landing stage for our large boat. There was a coconut for each of us to drink the milk wow! We went back across the river, called in the happy rooms and set off for our lunch. Well i don’t know how to describe where we were taken. It was called the Mekong Rest Stop. Tables were set out under thatched roofs with open sides. The menu was: young coconut body salad with shrimps and pork, fresh salad with shrimps and pork spring rolls, fried ball of sticky rice(amazing – about 8″ across, hollow which the waitress came and cut up into strips for us to eat – a bit like a pancake), crispy fried elephant ear fish, pancakes stuffed with shrimps and pork and salad with beansprouts, fried rice with garlic and pudding was banana flamed with rhum( that’s how rum was spelt!). A veritable feast i swilled down with tiger beer! We staggered to the bus and headed back to the hotel. Most of fell asleep! I have spent the rest of the day sleeping, repacking my case, settling my bill and having a shower. What a fabulous day! It is our last in Vietnam. We go to phom pen tomorrow. Night folks! Xl
Freejan