With an extra day in Saigon, we decided to take a trip outside of the city to see some other sights. Despite the touristy nature, it was best to book it with a travel company so they arranged everything. Even then, it was just $7 per person all inclusive (lunch too). We saw some cool things, but did have to fend off many "up-sales".
We took a bus for a couple of hours outside of the city, heading South West of Saigon, towards the Mekong delta.
Once we finished the bus journey, we took a short bus ride across the Mekong to an island.
Our tour guide is here on the right, explaining how they harvest the honey from the bees, as well as the royal jelly.
After the honey explanation, we tried some local honey, as well as some interesting indigenous fruits. Quite tasty!
The next stop was a factory (really just a hut on the island) where they make coconut candy. The candy was great, but we saw some weird things while we were there...
These ducks were next to the vat where they were churning the coconut powdery mixture. They had lots of flavors, but I don't remember seeing duck candy...
They also had some random animals in cages there, including this squirrel, who looks like he's given up on life...
Next up was a small boat ride through the streams. They gave us these hats to use, which really kept our heads cool in the hot sun. I can see why they are so popular here. After the boat ride, I was the only one on our boat to tip one of the paddlers, an older woman at the front of the boat. Unfortunately she didn't feel that my tip was big enough, and grunted in dissatisfaction...
After lunch we got to borrow some bicycles to ride around the village, My Tho. The town is very small, and like a lot of places in Vietnam, the locals try to rip you off whenever they can. Another example of this is when we went to a small street stall for food in Saigon. We grabbed a table near the street, which already had menus on it, so we started flipping through. We had difficulty reading them though, because they were in Viet, so then the stall owner brought us some English menus. It wasn't too surprising to find the prices were significantly higher...
Near the island, there are floating villages. These are small houses, mostly built with corrugated sheet metal, and often times several are connected. The people live there, and nearly all of the houses we saw like this also had dogs living in the little floating houses.
To get back to Saigon, we took a high speed boat.
On the Mekong, there are tons of boats like this, carrying sand to Saigon. There are cranes down river that dig up sand from the sea floor, and then these barges take the sand to Saigon, for use in building construction projects.
We took a bus for a couple of hours outside of the city, heading South West of Saigon, towards the Mekong delta.
Once we finished the bus journey, we took a short bus ride across the Mekong to an island.
Our tour guide is here on the right, explaining how they harvest the honey from the bees, as well as the royal jelly.
After the honey explanation, we tried some local honey, as well as some interesting indigenous fruits. Quite tasty!
The next stop was a factory (really just a hut on the island) where they make coconut candy. The candy was great, but we saw some weird things while we were there...
These ducks were next to the vat where they were churning the coconut powdery mixture. They had lots of flavors, but I don't remember seeing duck candy...
They also had some random animals in cages there, including this squirrel, who looks like he's given up on life...
Next up was a small boat ride through the streams. They gave us these hats to use, which really kept our heads cool in the hot sun. I can see why they are so popular here. After the boat ride, I was the only one on our boat to tip one of the paddlers, an older woman at the front of the boat. Unfortunately she didn't feel that my tip was big enough, and grunted in dissatisfaction...
After lunch we got to borrow some bicycles to ride around the village, My Tho. The town is very small, and like a lot of places in Vietnam, the locals try to rip you off whenever they can. Another example of this is when we went to a small street stall for food in Saigon. We grabbed a table near the street, which already had menus on it, so we started flipping through. We had difficulty reading them though, because they were in Viet, so then the stall owner brought us some English menus. It wasn't too surprising to find the prices were significantly higher...
Near the island, there are floating villages. These are small houses, mostly built with corrugated sheet metal, and often times several are connected. The people live there, and nearly all of the houses we saw like this also had dogs living in the little floating houses.
To get back to Saigon, we took a high speed boat.
On the Mekong, there are tons of boats like this, carrying sand to Saigon. There are cranes down river that dig up sand from the sea floor, and then these barges take the sand to Saigon, for use in building construction projects.
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