It was an early morning for our first full day in Vietnam. Coffee and snacks awaited us at the bar before we boarded our local longboats to explore the area. We drifted through a floating market at sunrise, where locals were buying and selling goods between boats. Sellers were laden with massive quantities of fresh fruit, including mangoes, pineapples, watermelons and more, all advertised by hanging a bundle of fruit from a bamboo pole at the front of their boat. Buyers loaded the fruit onto smaller boats while women paddled about selling breakfast noodles. Next we headed to a fish farm, where our locals guides filled us in about the important fish farm industry. Upwards of 100,000 fish might live in a net pen beneath people's floating houses! After the fish farm we continued on to Chau Doc. Here we hopped into trishaws, a local form of transportation where a bicycle pulls a small cart, and passengers sit in the cart. We got a terrific tour of the town, including weaving around traffic and seeing street life in full swing. After our ride we wandered through a busy market filled with strange sights and smells before returning to the Jahan.
Breakfast followed our morning excursion and we cruised down the delta towards My An Hung. Folks enjoyed lounging on the decks or balconies as the scenery slid past. We had an iPhone session before lunch to improve our iPhone photography and after lunch a presentation by our cultural expert on Cambodian weddings. This was a highly entertaining talk complete with firsthand experience.
Our afternoon excursion took us to a small village called My An Hung. We headed to shore to walk through a red chili pepper farm, talk to locals, and walk across a bamboo monkey bridge. A local family invited us in for music and a sampling of local fruits (delicious). We enjoyed sunset back aboard Jahan and the last recap of the trip before dinner. Tonight we will watch "The Quiet American."
