The next morning we boarded the Superdong for a 2.5 hour ride to Phu Quoc Island:

We arrived at the island, boarded a bus into town, and started the walk to our hotel.  We made it about half way when we of course had to stop for pizza and beer after which we decided to take a cab the last 1.5 miles...I know...lazy, but we are on vacation now!

We arrived at Daisy Resort around 1:00 PM on Tuesday and didn't leave it until 7:00 PM on Thursday.  The only thing that got us out on Thursday was we met some people at happy hour who were walking down the road for dinner, so we decided to join them.  Up until that point we slept in, at breakfast, sat by the pool, drank beer, went to happy hour at the pool bar, ate dinner at the resort, went to sleep, and repeated for 2.5 days until we went out to dinner which wound up being a great idea:

We then went back to the resort and didn't leave it for another 2 days when it was time to check out.  Here is a tour of the resort:

Believe it or not, one of my favorite parts of the resort is our bathroom that is outside:

Now you understand how we pretty much spent 4 full days here without leaving (except for a couple hours for dinner one night).

Unfortunately, tomorrow morning we fly back to Ho Chi Minh City for one for one last night in Vietnam before we fly back to the US.

After an amazing tour of Can Tho with Susan we are now going off on our own for a couple of days in the Mekong.  This will be one of our most adventurous trips so far since we are going to an area with very little tourists meaning little to no people will be able to speak English.  We said goodbye to our kite...yes it was still there and went to the pier to catch our boat to Ca Mau:

The inside of the boat wasn't too bad with cushions on the seat and the back.  We think the trip is about 5 hours, but we don't know for sure since no one speaks English.

I don't know how fast the boat went, but it left a pretty good wake:

After about 3 hours on the boat the ticket guy came to us and said "Sông Dốc" and we said no..."Ca Mau".  He said "Ca Mau" and we nodded.  He said "Sông Dốc" and we shook our heads no.  He then looked troubled as did the other passengers around us.  I then pulled out our map and noticed that Ca Mau really isn't on the way from Can Tho (where we left from) to Sông Dốc.  Now what?!?  Sông Dốc is way down on the tip of the Mekong Delta and looked way out of the way from where we needed to go.  

After much thought, I wrote down on a paper:

8/3/15 Táu ==> Ca Mau
9/3/15 Táu ==> Rach Gia

Meaning today's date we take Táu (Boat) to Ca Mau and tomorrow we take boat to Rach Gia.  He then wrote down:

9/3/15 Táu Sông Dốc ==> Rach Gia 6h20'

Ahhh...got it.  We can take a boat tomorrow from Sông Dốc to Rach Gia leaving at 6:20 AM tomorrow morning.

We pulled into Sông Dốc around 5:30 PM, after only a 4 hour ride.

Now the hard part...to find a hotel.  We started walking down the one main street that looked more like an alley as the sun was setting fast.

As we were walking people stopped and stared.  Adults ran into the shops and grabbed their kids to see us walking down the street.  After almost 4 months of traveling we were used to children stopping and looking at us, but in this town the adults stopped and looked as well.  It was a bit dangerous as people driving motorbikes were steering right at us as they were staring at us....luckily they slowed down to a crawl to get a really good look at us.  I just kept waving and saying hello as Tim felt more and more uncomfortable.  We must have been the first white people that have visited this town in like forever!

We finally found a hotel and they were so, so excited to have guests.  Through pointing and nodding we picked the most expensive room in the hotel for 250,000 Dong ($12 USD) and then the conversation got more difficult. They kept saying "ho chi-ow" and we didn't understand and they kept saying "ho chi-ow" and we still didn't understand.  They asked us to sit and he got on the phone, obviously trying to find someone that spoke English. Finally after a couple of minutes I thought...they probably want our passports.  Yes..that was what it was.  I don't know why we didn't realize it sooner since we always have to show our passports when we check into hotels.  Anyway, we gave our passports, dropped our bags in the room, and went out looking for something to eat.

After walking around a while..and getting stared at a lot...we finally had to settle for a street-side soup stand.  We got our soup and then some teenager, who wasn't 100% there, kneeled down by our table and stared at us as we ate.  The shopkeep must have thought it was OK since they let him just sit there.  Oh well...file this away as quite an experience!

We returned to the hotel and went to bed since we had to be at the pier around 6:00 AM.  We definitely didn't want to miss our boat and stay another day in this town that just keeps staring at us.

The next morning we walked to the pier and it was still pretty dark. The only good thing is that people couldn't see us to stare:

We arrived at the pier with plenty of time to take in the sunrise:

We boarded the boat which was pretty much the same as the boat yesterday except without padding on the backrest, but it was still comfortable enough and there was plenty of room.  We left right on time and then went about 100 yards and stopped to get a fresh shrimp loaded on top of the boat:

Finally we were off:

There were a couple of interesting passengers onboard with us.  Check out this kids jacket...his rank is Senior Airman in the US Air Force, and this woman brought her pet bear:

We both really enjoyed the boat rides where we got a feel for what life is like in the Mekong both by the people getting on and off the boat and by the scenery looking outside the boat.  These people really does live the River Life.

At 11:00 AM we arrived in Rach Gia.  We decided to walk to the 2 miles to the area we wanted to go since we were sitting in the boat for almost 5 hours.  As soon as went ashore we were bombarded with taxi and motorbike drivers that wanted to take us to town.  We tried to tell them we were walking and they all looked at us like we were crazy, but walk we did.  After almost 1 hour...it was very hot and we had our bags on our back...we arrived at the pier that tomorrow's ferry takes off from.  We actually did try to get on the ferry today, but it was sold out, so we checked into the first hotel we saw then went off looking for lunch.  We saw what looked like a supermarket so went inside and found some fast food.  I had fish and Tim had chicken.  We then found a food mall upstairs that had an ice cream stand.  Tim was very happy to get a 3,000 Dong ($0.14 USD) ice cream cone...he actually had 3!

After lunch we went back to the hotel to rest since we woke up early and there really wasn't anything else to do in this town.  Later we left the room to find dinner which wasn't too easy.  Just as we were going to give up and buy some cookie and chips at a store we came across a place that made vegetarian soup, so we got a couple of bowls...which were really very good, and headed back to the hotel. 

Tomorrow we head the island of Phu Quoc for 4 days of R&R...that's rest and relaxation for you non-military types...before we head back to the US.

The Mekong Delta is a part of Vietnam that I have been excited to visit.  I picture the Mekong Delta as lots of water, rural, less tourists, and traditional living.  In other words, I picture the Mekong Delta being authentic Vietnam.  At first the plan was to go down there and explore on our own, but while doing research on the area I found a review on a local tour guide name Susan Bui that provides private tours.  I emailed her and received an immediate reply saying that she was available on the dates I was interested and the cost for a 2 day private tour with a home-stay was $110 USD.  At that price I couldn't resist, so we booked the tour.  Susan then replied with information on the exact bus to take and what station to get off of and that she would meet us at the station.

We woke in the hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, ate breakfast, and took a taxi to the bus station..well...it wasn't the bus station, but is is where a van will take us to the bus station.  As expected, the van took us to the station and we got off to find us being the only Europeans there.  There were buses coming and going and a guy on a microphone outside announcing where each bus was going...of course this was all in Vietnamese.  Every time a bus pulled up I showed someone our ticket and they just shook their head "no".  Finally some official looking guy asked to see our ticket and just held out his hand in a wait position and walked away.  I was pretty confident that this guy was now going to take care of us, but Tim was a bit worries.  I can't believe that after all this traveling he is still a nervous traveler.  He is fine when we get on the transportation, but he worries about us getting on the right transpiration and then worries about getting off at the right location.  Me on the other hand is like don't worry...it will all work out.  I guess this is why we are good travel companions.  Anyway...after about 20 minutes that official looking guy pointed at a bus that we should get on, so we did.

At this point we are traveling blind.  All I know is to tell the bus driver that we need to get off at the Bình Minh bus station and we are supposed to meet a girl named Susan...even I was a bit nervous about this all working out, especially since I didn't have to leave any deposit for this tour and we don't have a phone to contact Susan if she was not there.  Three hours after boarding the bus the ticket guy pointed at us to get off and there was Susan ready to greet us...AWESOME!  After saying hello and introducing ourselves so talked to a van driver and told us to get in.  She said that the van will drop us off where we need to go and she would be behind us on her motorbike.  Uhm...OK.  The van pulled out and went down the road as I saw in the window Susan still walking to her bike.  Again that, what if the driver stops at the wrong place or forgets about us, feeling came over us.  After only 10 minutes the van stops in front of a gas stationnand the driver points to us to get out.  As soon as we got out a gentleman approached and asked if we were Tim and Gerri.  He was the owner of the home-stay and will walk us back there...AWESOME!

We walked back to our home-stay, was given our room, and was told that lunch would be served in 1 hour.  We had some time to relax, so we found the hammocks and relax we did: 

One hour late we were told lunch was ready, so we joined Susan and our home-stay host for an incredible meal consisting of fish baked in banana leaf, grilled okra, green beans with shrimp, duck and taro stew.

After lunch we relaxed for a couple of hours waiting for the temperature to cool before heading out for a bicycle tour of the area.  Around 3:00 PM we left the home-stay, rode a couple of minutes, and then caught a ferry across the river:

Once on the other side Susan showed us different fields and orchards:

We then stopped at a schoolhouse where some of the kids were outside for PE class.  The kids loved us being there:

Next stop was a temple built in the shadow of the Can Tho Bridge.  During construction of the bridge in 2007, the bridge collapsed killing around 60 people and injuring 140.  This temple was built to commemorate those killed:

Speaking of the bridge...the Can Tho Bridge was open on 24 April 2010 and is currently the longest main span cable-stayed bridge in Southeast Asia at 1.7 miles long.

Next we rode our bicycles to a Khmer village.  We came across these children playing in the field as their parents harvested the rice:

We then visited a beautiful Khmer temple that was just repainted gold and had very brightly colored murals inside telling the story of Buddha's life:

Last stop for the day is the market where we bought ingredients for tonight's dinner:

We returned to the home-stay and helped prepare the food while the local kids were being kids:

And then on to the feast of sweet potato fries, vegetarian spring rolls, pumpkin blossoms with squid, morning glory with garlic, and sweet and sour soup with catfish, okra, and taro root.  By the way...we were so full from lunch that we didn't eat dinner till almost 9:00 PM.

After being sufficiently stuffed we called it a night since we had to be up and out of the house by 7:00 AM.

The next morning, before leaving I took these pictures of the home-stay:

We walked to the river and there was a boat waiting for us.  This boat was all ours...just for Tim, Susan, and I:

Here are some views from the ride:

We then transferred to a smaller boat:

The first stop on the smaller boat is a floating market.  This market is predominantly a wholesale market for restaurants and shopkeepers with the minimum purchase being 20 pounds of produce.  The way you know what each boat is selling is to see what is hanging on the pole sticking up from the boat:

It was finally time for breakfast, but we didn't have to leave the river:

Here are a couple of videos showing the craziness of the floating market:

By the way...this isn't us, but it is what we look like if someone took a picture of us:

After the floating market we went up down river to see rice noodles being made:

We then went to an orchard that pretty much grew every fruit that you can possible grow in the Mekong Delta:

After walking around the orchard we sat down and had a sampler platter of the fruit grown there.  Everything tasted so fresh and juicy...the fresh tropical fruit is definitely one of the things we will miss about Southeast Asia!

After the snack we went back to the boat and headed back to Can Tho.  What an amazing couple of days we had with Susan.

We arrived back to Can Tho around noon, said goodbye to Susan and checked into our hotel.  Our plan is to spend the night here in Can Tho and then try to catch a boat south to Ca Mau to put us even deeper into the Mekong and see what life is really like. From Ca Mau we will take a boat the following day to Rach Gia where we will be catching a ferry to the island of Phu Quoc for a 4 night stay.

We figured we better go to the pier and try to get information for tomorrow's trip.  We get to the pier and of course no one speaks English so I show them the tour book and point to Ca Mau where we want to go tomorrow.  He nodded and pointed at the board that said there was a boat leaving at 1:30 PM going to Sông Dốc.  I said no Sông Dốc...Ca Mau, and he just nodded.  Through pointing and nodding we understood that the boat going to Sông Dốc will stop at Ca Mau.  Great!

Now time for lunch and beer:

After lunch we walked back towards our hotel and saw a lot of children flying kites.  We also noticed that the market was selling kites, so we thought, why not.  For less than $4 USD we purchased a kite and string and a local kid was all too happy to help us set it up and fly it with us:

All was going great and then Tim decided to take over:

And then...

Well...that was fun!  We told the kids that if they could get it down it was theirs, but there was no way.

After the crash, we went back to the hotel to relax a bit.  In case we missed our kite all we had to do was look out the window of our hotel room.  That bright orange kite sure stands out!

I got online to research what we should do tonight and found a place called Tiny's Corner.  From the description I thought it was a bar where local people go to practice English with tourists.  I thought this sounded interesting, so we went out to find the place.  It took us a really long time to find and when we finally did we were the only ones there, so we sat down with our beers and thought, oh well...the beer is cold.  Then slowly the young people started coming.  Each one was excited that there were English speaking people here so they crowded around us.  Finally the place was packed.  A woman took over saying that the discussion today was on woman since it was International Woman's Day this week  She had people stand up and tell what women they looked up to.  Would you believe that multiple guys said, beside their mother, that Hilary Clinton was a woman they looked up to?!?

Anyway, I was invited to get up and talk about the role of women in the US.  They were very surprised that I spent 20 years int he military and that I was an officer and a leader...in Vietnam women are not allowed to join the military.  I pretty much gave the "If you want something bad enough and you are willing to work hard enough,  you will be able to achieve it" speech.  We wound up spending over 2 hours there and really enjoyed the experience:

After Tiny's we called it a night and went back to the hotel.  Tomorrow our adventure really starts when we head out into the Mekong Delta unguided.

We "woke up" in Nha Trang after a pretty restless sleep.  I woke up around 2:00 AM and couldn't get back to sleep, so I read until about 5:00 AM and dozed on and off until we pulled into Nha Trang around 7:00 AM.  If you ask Tim how his night was he would tell you that he didn't sleep either, but every time I looked at him he was sound asleep.

We boarded another sleeper-bus to Ho Chi Minh city about 1 hour later.  This time our seats were all the way in the back where there were 5 seats across.  We actually lucked out on this one since the 2 seats there were in the aisle didn't have a pod to put your feet in, so Tim was much more comfortable.  Plus, the other 3 seats had small, skinny Vietnamese so we had plenty of room.

We made it to Ho Chi Minh City around 6:30 PM and walked to our hotel.  The hotel staff began apologizing that something was wrong with our room, but they have a sister hotel down the street, so they walked us there.  We spent the night but wasn't satisfied since this hotel was older than the one we originally booked, so we checkout in the morning and went back to the original one where they put us in a really nice room.

After re-checking in we finally left the hotel around 11:00 AM for the suggested self-guided walking tour of Ho Chi Minh City. This walking tour is a 2.5 mile route that is supposed to take us 3 hours.  Of course we knew that it was going to take us 5-6 hours the way we take our time.  

First we walked down a street that was turned into a market.  We were amazed at how many different items they can stuff into a small space.  As usually there were many fresh fruit vendors and vendors selling at least 10 different types of rice.

As we continued walking we passed a typical food vendor that had tables and stools spread out on the sidewalk.  We have seen this kind of "restaurant" all over Southwest Asia:

One thing that was surprising about Ho Chi Minh City was the modern skyscrapers amongst the classic French architecture.  We didn't really expected all this modernness.

We then came across the Central Post Office designed by Gustave Eiffel...yes the same one...and built between 1886 and 1891.

Directly across the street form the post office was Notre Dame Cathedral, built between 1877 and 1883.

We now doubled back and walked to the address 22 Ly Tu Trong, the building used for a US helicopter rescue the day before the fall of Saigon.  It is commonly believed, including Tim and I, that the building was the US Embassy, but this building actually housed CIA staff.

Next stop is an interesting roundabout with a weird flowerlike sculpture with water around it called Ho Con Rua (Turtle Lake).  The best thing about this roundabout is that there was many restaurants around it, and just in time for lunch...and our first 333 beer. 

After lunch, which was at 2:30 PM, we decided to walk back towards the hotel when we came across the "War Remnants Museum".  Our initial plan was to go to this museum tomorrow, but since we were here we may as well check it out.  The only down side of doing it today is we only had 1.5 hours till it closed.

Outside the museum had the typical displays we have come to expect with US armored vehicles, airplanes, and helicopters:

The inside of the museum was arranged on 3 floors were you started at the top and made your way down.  Here is the name of the very one-sided exhibits found inside.

I found this introduction to the "Aggression War Crimes" exhibit to be interesting:

Another interesting exhibit on how the rest of the world was against the US:

After learning how evil Americans are we left the museum and headed back to the hotel for a little rest before going out to dinner.  For dinner we headed to the backpacker area.  After walking around for at least 45 minutes we finally picked a restaurant.  The interesting thing about this restaurant is that the kitchen is across the alley as you can see in the picture below...the kitchen is in the back left:

Next day we headed out to the Reunification Palace.  This place was made famous by photographs taken on the morning of 30 April 1975 when tanks crashed through its wrought-iron gates after which the VC entered the palace and accepted the surrender of General Minh.

The inside of the building was left exactly how it was when the VC took over.  This includes the 60's style furniture in the game room to the war room with maps still hanging on the walls:

We thought was was really cool was the old technology left on display including movie projectors and military communication systems:

After the palace we walking around a bit, had some beer (and pizza) and just took in the sites around us.  Here are some of the highlights:

We then returned to the hotel for our last night in Ho Chi Minh City.  Here is a picture out our window of the night skyline and a picture of the breakfast area on the top floor of the hotel.

Tomorrow we take a bus south to the Mekong Delta that promises to be quite interesting.

We went down to check out of our hotel at noon and our driver from Hoi An was already there to take us to our next hotel...well...it isn't really a hotel, it is more of a homestay, but not like the homestays we have done in the past.  This homestay is in the city of Hoi An.  45 minutes later we pull into Charming Homestay.  This place is run by a woman named Nhi and her elderly mother.  Before we even got there I felt like I knew Nhi since we emailed back and forth for a couple of days, and she even friended me on Facebook and had read through this blog before we even got there.  We were quite happy that we were staying here for 4 nights.  We got to our room (they only have 3) which was the only one on the second floor and it was really nice...again...we are happy to be staying here for 4 days.

After a little break in the room we went down to get on our bicycles...every room comes with 2 bicycles free of charge...and road to a seafood restaurant that I read about that was supposed to be good.  After 20 minutes we arrived at said restaurant.   Here is where you would expect a picture of this wonderful seafood meal we had, but you are not going to get that since the food wasn't very good.  We had high hopes with the review I read and the live seafood in tanks, but it just wasn't, so I'm not even going to bother uploading the pictures.

After eating, we rode back to the homestay and chilled in the room.  We signed up for a tour tomorrow that picks us up here at 8 AM, so we have to be up early.

The next morning we ate breakfast...made to order eggs, fruit, juice, green tea, and baguette and got into the tour van at 7:50 AM.  Today we are visiting My Son, Vietnam's most extensive Hindu temple remains although only 20 of the 68 structures remain mostly due to US bombing during Vietnam.  Don't feel bad that the US bombed a ancient temple site since the reason is that the Viet Cong used the site as a hideout.

After touring My Son we got back on the bus.  We had a choice when we signed up for the tour to take the bus back to Hoi An or to take a boat ride with lunch for an extra $3 USD, so we went for the boat ride:

Before making it back to Hoi An, the boat stopped at an island that is known for its woodworking and boatbuilding.  Here is just a peak since we signed up for a tour tomorrow that goes to this same island.

When we got back to Hoi An we found out that the boat drops us off in town and doesn't take us back to our hotel, so we now have to make our way back to our hotel which is about 2 miles away.   So, we walked around Old Town, Hoi An known for lanterns and century old architecture.

As we were walking around we saw a sign that said, "Fresh Beer = 7 K/bowl" with an arrow pointing into an alley:

Of course we figured the work "bowl" was a typo, but a beer for 7,000 Dong or $0.33 USD...we had to check it out.  We ordered a couple of beers and some famous dishes of Hoi An called bánh vạc (white rose made of rice flour and minced shrimp) and hoành thánh chiên (fried shrimp wonton cakes topped with sautéed mixed vegetables).  A few minutes later we were served 2 bowls of beer and 2 awesome plates of food:

The bowls of beer were awesome as was the food.  This was definitely one of our favorite places we found in Vietnam so far.  Before it was done we had 7 beers and 4 plates of food for a grand total of 179,000 Dong or $8.33 USD...what a find!

After the great food and beer we continue our walk back to hotel when I took a couple of "artistic" pictures and stopped to play some basketball with a couple of local kids.

We then came across an unbelievable sign..."FRESH BEER 3000vnd/1 glass".  That's $0.14 USD for a beer!!!  Needless to say I was quite overjoyed.

Just as we were approaching our homestay we noticed a few Westerners hanging out a a small restaurant and they waved us over.  The place is owned by a local woman and her boyfriend from Minneapolis.  The couple hanging out there was from Fairhope, Alabama, not far from where we live in Florida.  As a matter of fact, we have been to Fairhope a few times since they have a really good brewery.  Anyway, we got to talking, and drinking beer then Tim looked at the menu that had a pulled pork sandwich. He just had to order it and he was very happy to have a taste of home for a change:

After the excessive of beer we went back to the hotel and went to sleep.  The next morning we forced ourselves awake for the included breakfast then went back to the room to relax.  We finally left the room around 2 PM in search of lunch.  Tim wanted pizza, so I went online and found a review of Luna d'Autunno that some people said was the best pizza in Vietnam.  We jumped on the bicycles to find it.  We did have some trouble finding it since it was not where the map said it was, but we finally found it after 1.5 hours of riding around. It was definitely worth the trouble...great pizza with a great view:

We then went back to the homestay and of course went back across the street to our new favorite bar called Circle where we met back up with the Alabama folks and enjoyed a few 17,000 Dong ($0.80) bottles of beer.

For the next day I signed us up for a free bicycle tour.  It was free because the tour guides were university students majoring in English and tourism.  They provide a free tour so they can practice their English and get a foot in the door for a future job as a tour guide.  

First stop was back to Kim Bong Island and the ship builders.  If you look at the boat you will notice the eye painted on it.  This is characteristic of all the boats built here.  Our tour guides told us that the eye is for many purposes....first...it is to scare the river monsters such as crocodiles, second...it gives the boat a soul, third...it led the way so you can see where you were going.  Kind of neat.  Oh...by the way...the boats are made out of solid mahogany.  The ones in the picture cost $7,000 USD.

Next we stopped at a family temple:

Next...we went to house that made paper items for the people to burn for their ancestors.  I mentioned a couple of blogs ago about the people burning money, but they also burn paper clothes, horses, cell phones, and even motorbikes: 

We then learned how to make rice noodle and sleeping mat and even got to participate:

We then road back to the ferry and stopped to take some pictures of the island:

Then back on the ferry to return to Hoi An:

Before riding back to the homestay we made a stop at our favorite beer bowl place and then stopped at our new favorite place to hang out in the whole world, Circle Cafe.  As a matter of fact...this is the picture Circle Cafe posted on their Facebook page with the caption "Anh with Circle's first regulars--Colin, Gerri, Tim, Lovelace. Thank you."

The next day we just need a break so slept in and chilled out in the room all day.  Tonight we have quite the "experience" to experience...a 24-hour bus ride to Ho Chi Minh City.  I know...we aren't too excited, but the flights and train were both sold out so we had no choice.

But first a farewell to Circle Cafe and then a 1.5 mile walk to the bus station.  The bus left at 7 PM.  We arrive in Nha Trang at 8 AM where we transfer to another bus to Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow night around 6 PM...oh joy.  The only good thing is that this is a sleeper bus where we get our own compartment to "sleep" in.  We just got on the bus and Tim is already not very happy since these seat were not made for 6 foot tall people.  Oh well...this will be an experience if nothing else.