Trotamundos: Can Tho

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RIC STOPHER!!!

We celebrated Ric's 28th birthday in Can Tho, the biggest town in the Mekong Delta region. We started the day at 5am with a sunrise river cruise to Cai Rang floating market where countless boats of all shapes and sizes zig-zagged between one another selling their wares. We bought coffees from one boat and noodle soup from another, before crashing into an old lady's boat and crushing her pan of rice!

Sunrise on the Mekong.

After breakfast at the market our boat 'captain', a middle aged lady in a conical hat, took us around the backwater canals where we witnessed real Delta life; women washing their pans in the river, children bathing, men fishing. The truth is that the water is smelly, dirty and full of rubbish. The waterways and rivers in the Mekong Delta region are all tributaries and channels of the Mekong River that has its source in Tibet. The river runs through China, Burma, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia before flowing into the South China Sea in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam. Washing your pans/children in a river that has picked up waste and pollution in six different countries has got to be pretty unhealthy.

Pineapple boat-stalls.

Boats at Cai Rang floating market.

By 9am we were hungry again and ready for a second breakfast of yet more noodle soup (Vietnam's national dish). Then we checked into Can Tho's four star Holiday One Hotel, where we spent the rest of the day in the ice-cold, roof-top swimming pool overlooking the city. It was great to have a bit of luxury after spending the past seven weeks on a serious budget. We had air conditioning, cable TV, a bath tub, the comfiest bed in the world - I enjoyed Ric's birthday just as much as he did!

We watched the sunset drinking beers in the Sky ar, then after a fancy dinner in the hotel's restaurant we crossed the road to the karaoke bar. Like in Korea, we got our own private room and spent three hours singing everything from Britney Spears to Puff Daddy to Bette Midler.