Mekong Delta Tour

One of the days we were in Ho Chi Minh City we decided to do the Mekong Delta tour which deserve its own post since my last post was already long and talking about this as well would have doubled it. We were deciding between the Chu Chi tunnels and the Mekong Delta and it was an easy decision since everyone we had spoke to said that the tunnels were far away and very small and that if you were claustrophobic in any way that you should skip it. Jim and Emily are absent from this post as they had slept in because of jet lag but Drew and I woke up nice and early to get things started. Let me say that the Mekong Delta itself was what we were hoping to see and that was incredible, however we are both so over the touristy parts of each tour where they drop you off and try to sell you junk or how bees make honey or where the local fruit is grown.....I am on the Mekong Delta tour to see the Mekong Delta, nothing more. So with that being said, here is our day on the Mekong Delta, the largest waterway in Vietnam:

Here is a picture of a small floating fishing village. These are very common on the delta.

Here is a close up of a fish farm which are all over the villages. Several thousand fish are in each pen.

Here is a lady making rice paper on one of the islands we stopped at.

Here is Drew sitting on a building instead of partaking in one of the activities which was buying items made from coconut wood.

He did try on a hat made from coconut wood and broke the hat. Needless to say if he couldn't fit in the hat, my big head didn't need to try.

Drew and I finished lunch early and ran back to this spot on the island where we saw a really pretty bridge. We have some of both of us but neither came out as there was no one to take our photo and no where to set it up for self timer. PS we finished lunch early because it was a whole fried fish bones, scales and all.

Our walk back through the island to the boat to get the tour started again. Every fruit imaginable was on the island from jack fruit, coconuts and bananas to things we had never seen before.

Fisherman on the Mekong. I had tried to catch a picture of them casting their nets but couldn't get an action shot.

Prime real estate.

Kids fishing with their father and waving to us in one of the smaller riverways.

Our big boat about to pass another.

We stopped off at another tourist location to hear local singers and they tried to sell us honey and fruit which we were not interested in. We took a horse carriage to the other side of the island and got back to what we like best which is being on a boat.

This canal was too small for our boat so we had to take a kayak type boat and this old lady rowed us to our bigger boat. It was amazing watching her row with an oar on only one side so we kept running into the trees but she used her feet to push us away each time.

The tour was everything we had hoped for and couldn't have had a better time. If you are ever in Vietnam please give it a try. My camera doesn't do a great job of showing the vibrant colors of the trees along the delta so I leave you with some photos from Drew's iphone (it's amazing that an iphone takes better pictures than a digital camera.