Down the Mekong Delta, Day 1 January 19

Sunday, January 19th

This morning we boarded a big tour bus and headed to the Mekong Delta. We drove about three hours and stopped. We boarded a boat and headed out to Dragon Island on the Mekong Delta.

Our boat to Dragon Island.

View from the boat.

First stop, a lesson in beekeeping. The tour guide talked to us about beekeeping. We acturally knew a lot more than he did!! 

Bee hives.

Our tour guide got stung!!

We were treated to a cup of honey tea, honey bananas, honey ginger and honey/sesame candy.

Next stop was a fruit tasting and a singer singing traditional music.

Pineapple, papya, dragon fruit, and some kind of apple.

We boarded the boat and headed to Tortoise Island where we took a canoe ride on a canal.

The river was like bumber cars. One canoe after another, trying to avoid each other.There were a few bumps.

After the canoe ride  we got  back on our boat and headed to another island. Here we had lunch, visited the crocodile farm and walked around town.

Crocodile farm. The crocodiles were lazily waiting for the tourists to feed them meat from a fish pole hung over the water. 

On another island a demonstration on how they processed coconut to make coconut candy.

Here they also made Snake wine. Snakes are put into jars of rice wine, where the snake bodies mix with the wine to make a specialitry wine.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_wine

Small cobra snakes and a scorpion are marinated in the rice wine. There are many medicinal uses for snake wine. 

Of course Charlie and Jon just had to taste the snake wine!

We got back on the boat and returned to our bus. We headed to Can Tho where we would spend the night for the next day tour to the Cai Rang floating market.

Our evening meal.

A Visit to the Zoo January 18

Saturday January 18th

We started the day off with breakfast at a local restaurant.

Pho a  vegetarian soup. Most people eat soup for breakfast.

After our breakfast we went to visit to the Saigon Zoo.

Waiting for the light to change. It was difficult getting across the streets.

The Siagon Zoo

We were not impressed on the care and living enivornments of the animals.

Elephants

A yellow python. He was over 8 feet long.

Trash can

Not a happy tiger.

Later in the day we went out to supper.

Our restaurant. 

Our waiter looked a lot like Jon.

A curry vegetable dish.

After supper we went back to our hotel and who should show up but our friend Arthur. He had been traveling for the past couple of hours back to Saigon from out in the country side and stopped to see us.

What an experience we had with him. He sat with us in our hotel room for over an hour and talked to us about Buddish and what it meant to be Buddist.

We are headed to the Mekong Delta tomorrow.  The easiest way to get to Phonm Penh from Saigon and to stop and see the sights along the way, is to take a tour. 

Arthur arranged the tour for us. We said Good NIght to our Buddist friend and said we would see him again in the near future.

War Remnants Museum January 17

Friday January 17th

We decided to call Arthur,(our Buddha Guide) and ask for help. He came to our rescue and took us to another hotel, which was very nice. He told us he couldn't spend any time with us as he had to leave Saigon to go to another town to do some work. 

After we setteled into our new hotel, we went to the War Remnants Museum. It was a very moving experience.

The kind of tank that Jon was in charge of during his tour.

A young man from Texas (28 years old) over heard Jon talking to us about his experience in Vietnam and came over and "Thanked" Jon for his service to our country. 

We didn't take many pictures inside the museum. The museum was divided into different sections with each section dedicated to a different aspect of the war. There were displays of materials, guns, uniforms, armaments, etc, and many moving photographs.

Visit  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Remnants_Museum  for more information on the museum.

Another vegetarian meal! After lunch we went back to our hotel.

Flowering trees in Saigon.

A view from our new hotel.  An ending to another great day.