We woke up for breakfast at our homestay and headed out shortly thereafter with Tom on bicycles to explore Vinh Long island. Tom called ahead to the homestay yesterday to make sure they’d have kids bicycles for the girls. The homestay kindly borrowed bikes from some local families, so the four of us were ready to go!
Cruising on Cycles
We got around the island on narrow packed stone lanes (not fully paved). We maneuvered around motorbikes and bicycles all along the way.
Much like Tam Hai, we weaved through neighborhoods and saw locals going about their daily business. Fishing was the main livelihood on Tam Hai, but in Mekong River Delta it’s all about produce and rice. We went through countless fruit orchards and Tom would point out each of the fruits as we went along. Things like rambutan, durian, jackfruit, papaya and milk fruit.
At one point, after we said hello to a woman working out in her orchard, she insisted on cutting some rambutan and jackfruit fresh from her trees to give us. Very friendly and generous folks.
We biked and explored for just under two hours and then checked out from our hotel. A short boat ride back down one of the canals and we arrived to our lunch spot. It was a massive, newly built open air restaurant along the river, adjacent to a conference center. There was only one other table of customers at the restaurant. It felt touristy and unnecessary to eat at such a “for show” place, but that’s one of the downsides of tours with a designated itinerary and pre-selected eateries. Not a place we’d ever choose to go to, but there you have it :)
Fish & Fruit Frenzy
After lunch we hopped back onto a boat to Con Son island. We spent a good two+ hours exploring on foot, hitting up most of the island. In addition to the abundant fish farms and fruit orchards, we also oddly had two opportunities to feed fish (who knew!?). First we helped fed “snakehead” fish. A few bangs to a bucket gets their attention and then you throw food pellets up in the air straight over the water. The snakehead fish can smell the food and leap up out of the water to catch it in their open mouths. Pure definition of a feeding frenzy :)
Doug's turn to give it a go!
Our second fish feeding session (at a different location) involved the girls feeding Vietnamese koi fish little pellets out of a baby bottle. Yes, you read right . . . feeding koi from a bottle! A first time for everything :) Our guide, Tom, was amazing at interacting with people; always with a smile, gentle voice and chatty character. He’s been a gem.
We also had a chance to briefly visit a remote fruit orchard.
Night in Can Tho
Our final boat ride of the day was about 30 minutes to Can Tho (the biggest city in the Mekong River Delta) as the sun was dipping down.
Dinner was similar to lunch; a nice setting (riverside) but very blah on the food front. Chalk it up to being on a tour :) On the bright side, Tom arranged a surprise early birthday delivery to our table for Sadie :) More on that in the dedicated Happy 7th Birthday Sadie! blog post!
Sadie and I headed straight back to the hotel room, a short walk away, while Doug & Paige made a covert detour to the night market to buy a few small birthday goodies for Sadie. Sadie knew what was up and turned to me after Doug & Paige left and said “It’s OK if I don’t have any presents. My present is you guys.” Wow and proud! (we did get her presents, for the record)
At Sadie’s request we spoke exclusively in a British accent when we were back in the hotel room. My accent is awful, but hers is actually quite impressive! We kept up the British accent gig when Doug & Paige returned. It threw them off a bit and prompted a giggle fit from Paige.
Lights out after a long, but interesting day exploring the Mekong River Delta. So many people working hard to produce the massive quantity of produce that churns out of this “Fruit Basket” region. Tomorrow we’re up early to see the Can Tho floating market, largest in Vietnam.
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