Yesterday we left Can Tho after three days in the Mekong Delta; our trip started with our first real banh mi, which converted Jess from banh mi-hater (from eating bad London ones) into lover of these incredible baguettes of Laughing Cow cheese + various pork parts + fish sauce and pickles. We quickly gobbled down our banh mis and settled for the bus journey, and after three hours and an unexpected and super fun ferry crossing we arrived in Tra Vinh.
In Tra Vinh we found an incredible market of squiggling weird fish, frog slaughter and millions of crabs. The rest of the day was spent walking around, drinking the verrrry nice iced coffee on offer here and eating the best summer rolls so far for 10p. The next day, after resisting persistent pagoda-tour offers from our hotel man, we left for the bus station, where we met Vietnam's most evil witch who began by extremely aggressively screaming and shouting at us for getting on the wrong bus, and finished by leaving scratch marks on Jess' arm after attacking us for not sitting in her preferred position on the bus.
Once we arrived in Can Tho, our next Mekong stop, we went to a fruit market to purchase obscene breast milk apples and other delights, and sat down by the river for a snack session. Afterwards, we felt forced to see at least one pagoda, and went on a walk to find one. We found not only the glorious pagoda but also bubble tea, yippie! Eating continued, because soon I sighted a lady on a street corner selling bo la lot. Consequently we rushed over the street, sat down at the little plastic chairs, and had the most incredible of snacks - bo la lot (grilled betel-leaf-wrapped beef) which we rolled in rice paper with pineapple, weird banana-looking fruit, noodz and millions of herbs and dipped in fish sauce, yes mmm mmm ahhh.
We spent the night in what looked like a gas chamber, with a bathroom where multiple murders must have occured before our arrival; we tried our best avoiding having showers/brushing teeth/going to the loo. The next morning, we went in a little boat together with a very cute young Vietnamese boy who took us around the Mekong to look at a couple floating markets; interesting at first but when we on our way back got stuck for hours in the completely overgrown backwaters with our young boy unable to get us out, we were less amused. Nevertheless, he did buy and artfully carved us a pineapple and gave us a mountain of rambutans to nibble on.
After the little boat trip, we rushed back to our hotel, picked up our bags and hopped on a bus back to Saigon, where we changed to a sleeper bus taking us to the coast, where we are now resting with very red and sore bums and backs after a day of intense beaching.
Goodbye for now friends!
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