Day 25 - My first Good Morning in Vietnam!

My day started of course with the free breakfast buffet that was provided by the Grand Saigon. Before I even left for Southeast Asia, I had decided that I wanted to try and avoid western food and try to stick to local cuisine. However, this proved to be difficult for breakfast. They had a few Vietnamese options with some noodles and rice, but there was a lot of eggs, potatoes, and other American breakfast items. Oh well, I'll just have to wait for my first real Vietnamese meal.

I only waited in the lobby for a short while when I was met by Chuong, my tour guide for the day. He and our driver would be taking me on a trip out to the Mekong Delta. So when I booked this tour, I had made the assumption that this would be a group tour. I wanted to participate in a group tour so I could meet some people while I travelled. Well it ended up just being the three of us for most of the day, no big deal. The tour only cost me about $35. After about an hour and a half of driving, we end up at a visitor rest stop where I get my first taste of how beautiful a place Vietnam can be.

After a short rest, we're back on the road and only about 30 minutes later, we arrive at the dock for the river where we board our first boat of the day. It's an interesting long tail boat that is captained by a nice little local woman, who if you look closely is wearing an old Dodgers jacket. Definitely a good sign for the day! Once we get to the other side of the river, we tour a small coconut candy making facility. Now when I say 'small' I really mean small. It's basically an open air kitchen with tools to cut up the coconut, wood fired stoves to cook the meat of the coconut, and long tables to cut the candy into bite sized pieces. Now for those of you that know me well, you know that I am not a fan of coconut, but of course with my fearless attitude, I decide to try some. And to my surprise, I actually enjoy it. You actually can't taste too much of the coconut flavor, probably because of all the additional sugar. So I ended up buying a bag of it.

Once I was done at the candy shop, we took a short trip over to meet a gentleman who had some interesting pets. The coolest of these pets of course being his Burmese python that I got to hold! For those of you that have never held a snake of this size, let me just tell you that guy is really heavy! Lucky for me the python was not hungry so it didn't start giving me the squeeze. But just little bit that he wrapped his body around my arm, I can see how he can easily squeeze the life out of something. Once I was done at the reptile petting zoo, I headed out on a little tuk-tuk (that's at least what they called them here) ride through some of the villages in the area.

At the end of the line was a small little market are that a number of small little restaurants to eat at. So Chuong has the two of us stop at a little place for some food. Finally some local food! I'm very excited for this. He speaks to our waitress and she brings us this platter of local fruit. It wasn't what I was expecting, but I'm more than willing to try anything. After I survey all of the choices I dive in trying one at a time in the order Chuong recommends because it will take me from sweet to bitter. I'm absolutely blown away by how good and fresh it is! And surprisingly, the one that I like the best is probably the one that looks the most peculiar. It's the one that looks like it has a spinney shell of an exterior. It tastes very much like a peach and in fact it has a very hard pit in the middle. Unfortunately Chuong forgot to mention that to me the first time and I totally bit down hard onto it. Lucky for me there were plenty to go around. In addition to the great food that we got to try, there was also this local group of musicians that came by to play for us. They had some very interesting instruments that I was able to get on video and I'd be more than happy to show people on my iPad sometime!

After this little snack, we took a very relaxing boat ride through some of the canals of the Mekong Delta. When I initially signed up for this tour, this is exactly what I had in mind. We were gently rowed through narrow canals that weaved through homes of the local people. Fish traps lined all of the canals in hopes of catching dinner for that evening. Floating lotus flowers were spread out sporadically through the canals. It was a very peaceful segment of my tour and a very nice contrast to Ho Chi Minh city.

The end of the line after the boat ride was lunch. The fruit was a nice snack, but definitely did not fill me up enough to keep me going through the rest of the day. The restaurant that we stop is set up on a dock that is literally right over the delta. So since we have water directly underneath us, we manage to stay relatively cool despite the humidity. Immediately we are taken to our table where the food is already set up for us. After I sit down a get a better look at what I'm about to eat and I'm very intrigued. It is a whole fish that has been completely fried. At first I thought I would need to eat it right off the bone, but that doesn't turn out to be the case. A waitress comes over and begins to peel the fish off of the bone and wraps it with rice, some kind of leaf and a sauce all rolled up in rice paper. In addition to that I had a soup, and some shrimp. To wash it all down I decide to have a Tiger beer with lunch. I originally thought it was a local Vietnamese beer, but I later learned that it's made in Singapore. It was a wonderful way to start my Vietnamese cuisine!

Once we were done with lunch (it was a late lunch, we were done around 2:00), Our tour was coming to a close. We headed back across the river, with the same captain that we had before. And then we set out for the drive back to Ho Chi Minh. Along the way, we picked up another person who was a participant on another tour. Her name was Tracy and she did the two day tour of the Delta with an overnight stay. It was nice to have another traveller to talk to about things. She was headed in the opposite direction as I was and she had already been to a number of places in Northern Vietnam. She gave me recommendations about a number of things including a travel agent for Halong Bay as well as advice to go to Hoi An since I wasn't originally planning to stop there.

After the drive back to Ho Chi Minh, we dropped Tracy off at her hotel, but Chuong said that he would take me to other places in the City if I'd like. I jumped on this opportunity of having free transportation and had him take me to a place called the Jade Pagoda. It was my first temple that I got a chance to visit in Southeast Asia (first of many!). It was a great introduction to these temples as it was relatively small, so it wasn't too overwhelming. It had a number of statues as well as some amazing recessed sculptures. In addition to taking me to the Jade Pagoda, Chuong was also nice enough to help me run a couple of errands. First, I needed to get a train ticket for an overnight ride to Nha Trang for the following night. Chuong helped me purchase my ticket since the lady behind the ticket booth didn't speak any English. After that, they took me to a cell phone shop to get a new iPad charger since mine had already blown out in the hotel! After these errands, it brought my time with Chuong to a close. I was very grateful for him being a great tour guide and then going above my expectations and helping me out with my errands! Needless to say he definitely earned his tip.

Once I was back at my hotel room, I took it easy for a little while. I took a shower, and then I started mapping out what I wanted to walk around and see the next day. Once I got all of that planned out, I need to focus on finding a place to get some dinner! I thumbed through my Frommer's Guide and found a restaurant to try out that was within walking distance. I found it on my map and set out to find it. However once I got to where the restaurant was supposed to be, I quickly learned that a laundromat currently operates out of that shop. Fail 1 for Frommer's! So instead of walking all the way back to my hotel, I decide to just walk around until I find something that looks good. Most of the restaurants have their menus out on the sidewalk so you can look beforehand. In not too long I find one that peaks my interest. It's a nice small restaurant that actually has a live pianist playing. After I settle in to the restaurant, I order some spring rolls to start as an appetizer, not realizing that I probably could have made a meal out of just those! I learned that I'm supposed to wrap them in the lettuce and dip it in the sauce (stupid American!). Either way you eat them, they were absolutely delicious. My meal continued with my first crack at authentic Vietnamese Pho. Let's just say, I was not let down. It was all that it lived up to be! I definitely left that restaurant a happy camper!

After dinner, I decide to try and find a place to have a couple of beers. As I'm walking back towards my hotel, I come across a small place that describes themselves as a Beer House. Well this immediately draws me in! It's filled with a good mix of locals as travellers, but apparently I'm in a bit of a shy mood tonight and I don't really strike up a conversation with anyone. However I do try two local Vietnamese beers; Saigon and "333". The Saigon is good, but not as good as the Tiger I had with lunch, and the "333" is better left behind the bar! By now it's closing in on midnight and it has been a very long first day in Vietnam, but in my book, a very successful day.