Day 222, Saigon, Vietnam

Cheyenne, Sam & Phi

We had a a wonderful day together; we visited the Mekong Delta. Bit of a bus ride there, hour and a half, and we were met at the 'wharf', for want of a better word, by a local guide named Lane. On the boat across the Delta where she gave us a commentary about the area. A lot of coconut trees grown here, so it's the main source of income for the people living on the island we visited. We were shown how every part of the coconuts are used; for sweets, shredded coconut, rice paper with coconut (yummy), the fibres, the coconut shells for bowls and the trees themselves; the leaves and wood to build houses. Our guide was very funny. She told us she has a two month old baby girl, who is looked after by her parents as she is separated from her husband. She told some great stories about life in Vietnam, with humour and interest.

Elephant Ear fish

We rode on the back of a tuk tuk, this one like a flat deck with some seats on them, over back roads in the villages, being hit by low hanging banana leaves, but at least not by coconuts! Some bumpy paths, and precarious corners, but loads of fun. 

We stopped for lunch, a beautiful spread of Elephant Ear fish, rice, fresh prawns and other Vietnamese traditional foods. Some of our group were getting quite sleepy after lunch, as they had drunk a lot more than I did last night and stayed out much later!

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No time for snoozing though, now we were into small boats, being 'rowed' by a pretty strong woman, down a small river, past the water coconut trees and onto the big Mekong River.

An insightful day into life in the Delta!

On the Mekong

Farewell dinner tonight was at a charitable organisation, called Koto, which stands for Know one, Teach one. The organisation was set up by an Australian ten years ago, where he would take street kids off the street as well as disadvantaged youths and train them in the hospitality industry. It's become a big success. Dinner was scrumptious, and I had quite a chat with our young waitress, who was keen to practice her English and tell me about her experience so far with Koto.

She was extremely proud of her training so far and the fact she now got to train others too.

A very unique place for our farewell dinner; a great choice Intrepid!