Southern Vietnam: Islands and Rivers

After saying goodbye to Chris in Phnom Phen, the three of us continued on to the south coast of Cambodia to a beach town called Kep. We spent the afternoon strolling around the beach and dinned on crab with fresh Kampot pepper for dinner (best meal of the trip). The next morning we crossed the border into Vietnam by mini bus and then took a high speed ferry to the island of Phu Quoc. Phu Quoc is actually just off the coast of Cambodia but for the moment remains part of Vietnam (the Cambodians are not pleased). We spent a couple of days relaxing on the beach.

Lindsay and I also took advantage of $3 massages on the beach.

The beach right in front of our $10/night bungalow.

We decided to join a snorkeling tour on our second day. Unfortunately the water is a little murky this time of year due to the tropical storms but we still saw some cool fish. We also enjoyed fresh sea urchin on the boat. I had learned to avoid them raw in Japan "Uni" but really enjoyed them in their cooked form. As part of our snorkeling trip we also had a chance to fish and below is Mark with his big catch.

After Phu Quoc we decided to continue to the Mekong Delta area of Vietnam. Most people do this as part of a tour from Siagon but we managed pretty well on our own. Our first stop was a river town called Can Tho. The town was pretty flooded so we had to wade through the streets to dinner. The next morning we left at 5am to go visit the floating markets. This was our guide.

Mark & Lindsay on our way to the market.

They had an interesting system for letting shoppers know what goods were for sale on each boat, they just hung up a sample of their produce on a giant flag pole.
Along the way we also stopped at a place (you can't really call it a factory, more of a house) where they make rice noodles. They sort of boil the rice down into a thin liquid form. Next the noodles are steamed in giant thin circles like crepes. Finally, they are laid out to dry in the sun. Once they are dry they are sliced and ready to be sold. This was our second noodle factory of the trip and believe it or not this place was way more high tech than the one we went to in Laos.

Along the way our boat guide made us a whole series of jewelry, toys, etc from palm fronds. Here I am wearing a necklace, ring, bracelet and earrings that he created out of nothing but palm.

After Can Tho we headed to Vihn Long to try to find a home stay on an island in the Mekong. We had envisioned a place where we could just pay a family to stay in a spare room but as it turned out most of the "home stays" ended up being mini hotels where large tour groups came. We were lucky and stumbled into Nam Thanh home stay which happened to be completely free of tour groups. However, we were politely told the next morning that we needed to be out by 2pm as they were expecting 25 french people that evening. The family over fed us and told us about their uncle who lived in San Jose, California.

We also had a chance to bike around the island the next morning and Mark and I indulged in one of our favorite snacks of the trip, the young coconut. First a lady uses her machete to slice a hole in the top. After you drink all of the coconut milk out with a straw she whacks the coconut in half with her knife and gives you a spoon so you can scoop out the soft flesh. Mark and I try to eat them at least once a day but Lindsay is not a fan. She is patient though and usually orders a soda water.