Ho Chi Minh City (part 2)

We got up this morning and took a 2 hour car trip to the Mekong Delta.  One of the things that fascinated me was these little resting places on the side of the road.  They would have hammocks hanging and a few tables with chairs.  I asked our tour guide what these were and he told me it was just a place to rest for people or tour drivers.  We wanted to stop and take a rest but we never had the chance.

We got to the Mekong River and took a boat ride to Unicorn Island.

 There were 4 islands: unicorn, turtle, dragon and phoenix. After wegot off the boat we sat down for a snack of fresh fruit and some vietnamese music.  We loved most of the fruit but it was all stuff we have had here in China before. The music was also very pretty.

Then we got into 2 canoes and rowed down the river.  We saw lots of jungle trees that made a canopy over the river and some water coconut trees.

After the canoe ride we got back on our boat and went to a different part of the island.  We got to see how they make coconut candy and got to try some.

 Even David said it wasn't too bad.  The girls and I loved it and bought several packages.  Then we got to go on a "motorcycle rickshaw" ride to lunch.

 Here we got to have a vietnamese lunch with different food we had never tasted.  They started with "elephant ear" fish wrapped in rice paper and then brought us prawns, pork, vegies, beef, rice and other things.  We all found a few things that we really enjoyed and walked away full.

 

Then we got back on our boat and the driver let the kids sit by him back to the mainland.  They loved getting to be by him and help drive.

On the way home in the car our tour guide told us some Vietnamese folk tales.  Some of them were really good and some were sad.  He also sang to us and told us that when he was younger he lived in a very poor village and they didn't have electricity.  He said they didn't have a tv in their village until he was 7. The tv was black and white.  All the people in the village would go and watch tv in the evenings.  He remembered when the battery ran out and had to be charged and there was no tv to watch that evening.  His father wanted him to learn and get a better life so he sent him to Ho Chi Minh City to go to school.  He studies english and has learned well enough to be a tour guide.  He said he wants to go to America some day and see the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C.  We really liked him a lot.