Can Tho, Vietnam

21.7.13
Hello!! So where was I? Oh ya.. I was saying HCMC was boring (read it here) and we decided to head to Can Tho on the third day morning. We had our hotel booked, settled our breakfast and head off the bus station to get our tickets to Can Tho.

It took us approximately an hour walk from our hotel to the bus ticketing office because it rains half way. We were lucky! Because the next bus departs at 1 pm which is 15 mins later! Thank god!!

We took "Phuong Trang" bus, fare is 115,000 dong to Can Tho. "Phuong Trang" has the largest number of services to Can Tho daily. They provides free shuttle bus to Mien Tay bus station (main terminal) and a free water.

The bus ride takes around 3-4 hours. There will be a stop at a rest pit. But bear in mind, it's only 10-15 mins break. The bus will leave without you if you are late. I swear, because we saw it with our own eye. The bus driver just left without the lady sitting in front of us on board. So scary lo! >_< Luckily we didn't stay long there. We quickly went to the washroom and grab some food, mainly also because there's nothing much of our preference. The only thing that looks decent enough is this Samkang burger.
It's a fast food concept burger kiosk. Kareshi had their tuna sandwich and I had their instant chicken rice burger. Kareshi ones was freshly made on the spot and mine as its name, it's instant. They heat it up with a microwave and viola, ready to be served. BUT! Out of our surprise, it's good! The first meal that we actually feel is good! It's our first decent meal in 3 days!! Lol

It's gonna be a long journey so after the food, time to sleep!! ^_^. Throughout the whole journey, the bus operator was blasting really noisy, annoying Vietnamese songs. It was so hard to get into sleep but thankfully we have our earpiece to listen to our own music.

3 hours later..
We are finally here at Can Tho!! There's shuttle bus service at the terminal that will send you to your destination. So nice Lo~ After checked in, settle down, time to explore again!

Our hotel is located very very near to the pier,just across the street. We walked around looking for agency to book our slot for mekong delta floating market the next day morning but no luck spotting the agency that was recommended on travelfish, so we randomly enter a restaurant to grab some food before we continue searching. 

and here, our nightmare continues. The food is really... way too... not yummy. Veggie overcooked, prawns not fresh, taste weird, combination of it = didn't finish the food. Only the drinks were good. I had mango yogurt smoothie and kareshi had orange yogurt.

Instead of blind search, we decided to give the agency a call to find out where exactly they are located. Their operator speaks fair English so no communication breakdown. It took us almost an hour walk to reach the destination. At that point, I can't really feel my legs, feel like crying. Quickly got the booking done and we headed off for food again but its really a difficult food hunting task for us because we have quite a few restrictions. I am allergy to egg and yeast and kareshi is a pescetarian (no meat, only seafood), so to meet both it is difficult, plus everything is in Vietnamese wording, that makes things harder.  


Some interesting things along our walk. Carousel inside a market and a "Hat tree" bike.

After a LONG LONG LONG walk, we still unable to find any food to eat. We were starving like hell! and its still a LONG way back!! My temper started to get loose. I can't be starve, I get angry when I am hungry. I am sure my face looks black back then, pity my kareshi had to bear with it. Thank you for tolerating me and tried your best to get me food. At last, we settle with KFC (shame on me, go all the way to oversea to have KFC!).

We also visited this Trung Nguyen Coffee house

Kareshi had Sang Tao 3 coffee and I ordered a pineapple orange smoothie. Both taste great!!

The drip coffee is so so so so good that we decided to buy some as souvenirs. I don't usually buy souvenirs because I don't like the feeling that I am out for holiday to relax and enjoy but at the end I have to crack my head to think what to buy and who to buy for. After a filling dinner and nice coffee, we walked back to our hotel happily. LOL

22.7.13  
If you wanna go to the floating market, make sure you are ready at 5.00 am. We woke up really early for this. 
This boat lady came to our hotel to pick us up and head straight to her boat. Although she can't speak a single word of English but she is really very very friendly as she is always smiling. 

Rise and shine. Its 5 am+ but the sky is already very very bright. Kareshi said he looks ugly in this photo, but aiya can not see your face la, so don't worry!

Me with our boat lady.

Approaching the floating market. Basically, the floating market sells food, fruits, veggies and etc. Its not as big as Thailand's floating market but still its something interesting to experience. 

The big boat is the supplier, and this is how they "transfer" the goods.
"Nah, hop ar!"
"Okay, okay, come! throw!"

There are also boats that sells drinks and some finger food. We bought a cup of coffee, wanted to treat our boat lady but she refuse to accept it. >_<

At first sight, I don't understand what is the pole I am seeing on every big boats. But when we go closer, I realize they hang what they sell on the pole, its like an identify flag! Interesting!

Some random photos taken at the floating market.

Boats and boats and boats...

Cleaning her living habitat 

The eye (photo credit to kareshi)

Say Hi to the Iceman and Ice woman~

I love this photo.. 很有feel~ 

Propellers.. (again photo credit to kareshi)

Let's go to the school school school..

Have a coffee?

Window. I really don't know what caption to put for this photo.

Washing up and pose for the camera, say cheese~

The sinking ships no.1

The sinking ships no.2. The eye is like spying on us.. it reminds me of the jaws theme song..
   

The sinking ships no.3. These big boats are literally sinking. See the photo yourself! These boats carry sand and gravel, but in such small canals... really wonder how they maneuver. All of them were so calm and seems like its no big deal (its their living, of course la! They do it daily!) but still Kareshi and me were really amazed by them.

The end of floating market. Let's continue with the rest of the tour at Mekong delta.

My "stylo" boat lady.

After the floating market, she toured us around the delta and some canals. Along the way, she had to stop the boat for many many times because the propeller got stuck with trash, mainly plastic bags. But out of my surprise, after she cleared the propeller, she did not throw the rubbish back to the delta but keep in a tiny pail she prepared for rubbish! That's really an awesome deed because we saw people throwing rubbish into the river/ delta/ road side without feeling bad at all.

When we were touring along the delta, we even saw this guy from a restaurant at the river bank throwing beer bottles right into the delta, not one or two but the whole basket of them, I looked at him and took my phone to snapped him, he stopped the moment he sees me holding my phone up. SHAME ON YOU!!

The whole tour takes around 3 hours. We were back to our hotel around 8 am. What to do now? SLEEP OF COURSE! We slept until 11 am, woke up get ready and checked out at 12 pm. Took a lunch and time to head back to HCMC. By the time we reach HCMC, its around 5 pm. Had our dinner then back to hotel because we wanted to have enough rest as we will be heading home the next day.

After 10-15 km walk per day (4 days in total), this is what I get. Mega blisters! lol its a bit disgusting i admit. hahaha!

Packed our stuffs, settle everything and time to chill with Nat geo, discovery and animal planet! I am coming home tomorrow~

23.7.13
Its Going home day~~ Woke up, checked out and lunch time!

We decided to go to Trung Nguyen Coffee house again before we leave Vietnam. Again, had a long walk before we manage to find it.

This time round, we ordered the most expensive coffee in the menu (actually its the second expensive one)- Legendee

and a guava juice. We always ordered one coffee and one juice. The juice is nice but as for the coffee, we still prefer Idea - sang tao 3.

My Trung Nguyen special dry noodle. It's SUPERB!!!!!!!! really very very nice!! The Best meal in Vietnam!!

Kareshi's fried rice. So-so only. Conclusion: Vietnamese not good in Fried rice. After our brunch, we took a taxi to the airport because we don't have much time left, taking bus might cause us missing our flight. Luckily, the taxi fare wasn't very expensive. 

Boarding.. Home, here I come. I miss my second home.. I miss the food! hahaha... Earlier on, I told you I bought some coffee home as souvenir right? Guess how many we bought?
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Tadah!! 21 packs!! Only thing we bought from Vietnam, nothing else. LOL

That's all for my Vietnam trip, hope you enjoyed reading.

Malacca short getaway post will be up soon!

If you would like to know more...
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~Live to Dream ♥ Dream to Live~♥ 
Audrey


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