Red Zebra Labs

After a VERY rude awakening during the night (note to self – no more rooms with adjoining balconies or windows without glass!) we joined a bunch of local and westerner tourists in front of the hotel across the street. We were instructed to leave our bags in the lobby and were ushered to a boat at the dock. The first stop was a fish farm. It was in a home in one of the local floating villages. The were these 2 “pens” in the floor/dock of the home, inside were nets with living fish. We could toss food into the pens and the fish would just go crazy eating. I’m talking what looked like an absolute feeding frenzy! It looked the the water was boiling, that’s how active the fish were.

Stop #2 was the silk farm/local village. It was more like silk farm and souvenir shop really. We saw the loom the women used for weaving, but there was a large room filled with silk scarves right next to it. Also, along the side of one building were table of vendors with small trinkets, fans and snacks. I picked up a few silk scarves.

Our stops complete, we headed back to the boat, then back to the hotel where we were put on a 15 seat minibus. We sat next to a Dutch girl who had done a homestay the night before in the silk village and was now on her way to Saigon. She’d been in SE Asia for about 6 months, working in Chiang Mai for a while before travelling around. She was actually going to be flying back to CM for Songkran (Thai New Years celebration, when large water fights dominate the towns) in a few days.

As the bus continued it’s journey to Cantho, we stopped to pick up more passengers. Like Cambodia, just because there are X amount of seats in a vehicle doesn’t mean it can’t hold more passengers. There were people sitting, on people’s laps, on the floor and on small stools. At least there was AC.

Once in Cantho, the tour was over for he day us; the guide said someone would be meeting us the next morning to take us to the floating market and villages. While in Cantho Jody and I got to planning our Vietnam itinerary, With barely 3 weeks to spend to go from south to north we had to choose and cut out where we wanted to go. We decided to give the beach resort towns of Nha Trang and Mui Ne a miss, opting to just visit the beaches in Hoi An and Cat Ba instead. We both wanted to spend time in Saigon, Hoi An, Hue, Hanoi, Cat Ba and Sapa. WE also decided to visit the Cu Chi tunnels just outside Saigon and not the DMZ near Hue. With all that in mind, our arrival date in China would be between April 28 and May1.

Once we were done done planning we took a walk around for something to eat. After some time we came across a small place near the water that had a variety on Vietnamese and Western food. There were a few dishes containing snake. Not feeling overly daring, Jody had Pho and I ordered some goat curry, but I think it was actually lamb. We walked back to the guesthouse along the illuminated waterfront.

The next morning we set out to the floating market with our tour. We got on a large touring boat not unlike the one we were on the day before. The market it really a bunch of large boats selling mostly fruit and fish to smaller boats. Our boat went all around the market, then stopped next to one selling fruit. I got some pineapple on a stick. After the market we were taken to a place that made rice vermicelli and another small local village, A bunch of local kids showed up and followed us around. The tour leader waned us to watch our bags and pockets, since the kids had been known to try and steal.
We moved our bags so that they were in front of us, and the kids suddenly went away.

After the tour we stopped in Cantho to wait for our bus to Saigon. For lunch, a few people other people from the tour had seen snake on menus around town and were also curious to try it. Between our group of 8 or so more than half was game to try, so we got a snake dish to share. It was actually pretty good, kind of an oily meat. Don’t think I’d order it again as a meal for myself, but maybe to share as a group meal.

The ride to Saigon was pretty uneventful. Not long after leaving Cantho we had to take a short ferry ride over a river, as the bridge was still under construction. The boat consisted of motos and tour buses. Very few cars. I chatted a bit with a Canadian/British couple who had been teaching English in South Korea for the past year. Once off the ferry we had to find out tour bus, which wasn’t the easiest task since many buses look alike, and most people failed to take note of any distinguishing features our bus had, our what our driver looked like. Fortunately Jody was able to identify the bus, and we piled and headed north to Saigon.

(We were in the Mekong Delta region April 10-12 )