Explore Vietnam: Saigon, Can Tho, Mekong River, My Khanh Village and Binh Thuy

Day 01: 20 April 2013
Explore Saigon, Can Tho, Mekong River, My Khanh Village and Binh Thuy

We arrived very early in the morning at Tan Son Nhat International airport. At the airport, the coach that will bring us to Can Tho was waiting. 

We boarded the coach after checking out from the airport and we were happily greeted by our guide Mr. Truong Van Tien, "Tien" for short.

Travel from the airport to Can Tho, where we will be having our breakfast takes atleast 4 hours.

While inside the coach, I was so excited, though feeling asleep as I missed it while inside the aircraft, I stayed awake and enjoyed the 4-hour travel feeling as if I was still in Manila. The streets, parks and buildings are almost similar to ours in the Philippines.

If our streets and highways in the Philippines are flooded with jeepneys and buses, in Vietnam, the highways are flooded with sea of motorcycles. According to our guide, there are at least 5.5 million motorbikes in Saigon alone and in the entire Vietnam, there are at least 25 million motorbikes.

Bikers

There are many fruit stands at Can Tho, well, in Vietnam, you can find a fruit stand almost anywhere.

Fruit Stand

Of all the fruits that I tasted, my taste buds will never forget the sweet and sour taste of the Sweet Apple. We don't have this in the Philippines and it looks like lanzones.

Rice

At 0500H (Vietnam time), we reached Can Tho. We had a short break and then prepared for a boat ride to see the Floating Market. My excitement was doubled.

Sunrise at Mekong River

While boarding the motor - powered boat, I got a chance to take few snaps of the beautiful sun rise along Mekong River and I was lucky. The river turned like a gold.

We started our boat ride at around 0630H on Mekong River. Though the waters are murky, I didn't see any floating trash and plastics except the green lilies. I almost told myself that the Mekong River can be compared to our Pasig River but not. Mekong is alive and neat.

Houses at Mekong River Bank

Along the river banks, there are houses most of which are made of woods. After about an hour boat ride, we stopped at a floating gas station to re-fuel our vessel. We were told by our guide that the busiest time at the floating market is from 0700H to 0900H everyday.

At around 0730H, we were at the floating market. I was completely impressed. As if I was looking at small versions of the Galleon ships. Most of the merchandise are fruits and vegetables and they are cheap.

I told myself, maybe the secret of Vietnam people behind their being "Slim" is because they consume a lot of fresh vegetables and fresh fruits.

The Floating Market at the Mekong River is truly a feast of the eye - each boat is filed with colorful vegetables and fruits. I enjoyed taking pictures. It was totally a new experience for me.

Floating Market

At around 0830H, we turned back and head towards the other side of the river bank to see a village called My Khan.

After enjoying the boat ride cruising along the Mekong River and moving around the floating market, we visited a nearby village called My Khanh. The place is like an orchard. According to our guide, the place is more than 8 hectares in area filled with various tropical fruit trees like mangosteen, cocoa, rambotan and others.

My Khan Gate

We had a sumptuous brunch at a nice restaurant. The food was so healthy and nice - fresh vegetables, tasty soup and of course, the best coffee I have ever tasted - Vietnamese coffee.

After indulging ourselves with nice foods, we started exploring the orchard. The first place that we visited was the Binh Thuy ancient house.

Binh Thuy is a 100 year-old wooden house that, according to our guide, formerly belong to a noble family in Vietnam. After the Vietnam war, the owner decided to donate it to the government and converted it as a museum.

Binh Thuy Roof

Antique Furniture

The structure is still intact - it is more of a Chinese architecture. Inside, there is an altar with a wooden Buddha and several antique furniture.

Few meters away from the Binh Thuy house is a small native house and inside is where the Vietnam traditional rice paper was being made. We enjoyed tasting several native delicacies like the rice cake.

Making Native Delicacies

There is also a crocodile area filled with tourist nearby. Though the crocodiles are young, there are lots of them and they are active. Crocodile catching - is actually feeding the crocodile with a piece of chicken meat hooked on a nylon cord suspended at the tip of a flexing bamboo stick.

One of the shows at the orchard that I considered "very funny" was the pig race. Five hungry piglets raced along a metal fenced track towards the other end of the line where the sumptuous pig food awaited them. One of our teammates decided to bet. According to the master of the show, the winner takes the pig as the reward. Luckily, we didn't win.

Pig Race

After the piggy show, we started to get hungry and our guide told us that we had to "fish" for our lunch. The fishing area is about few hundred meters away from the pig race track and we walked.

Both sides of the way are filled with mangosteen and cocoa fruits. There is also a "horror" theater nearby but it was closed at that time.

At first, I thought that it would be a normal fishing activity with a fishing pole and a bait. Unfortunately, I was completely mistaken.

Photo Courtesy of Maggie Parani

They told us that we have to fish inside a muddy ditch using a Vietnamese Bailer wearing native Vietnamese farmer black uniform. Five of us volunteered.

I was the second one to get into the muddy ditch. It was very slippery. The mud is knee-deep and very sticky. We had to catch at least 6 mud fish using the bailer and our bare hands.

Photo Courtesy of Maggie Parani

This was the most challenging yet the funniest part of the show. We spent atleast 45 minutes catching the slippery mud fish. We enjoyed so very much.

After catching the 6 mud fish, we took a shower and then proceed to a nearby shaded park to watch three notorious monkeys perform acrobatic stunts.

Monkey Show

I have to admit, the monkeys are well trained. They are good at - balancing, biking, and others. At the end of the show, the smallest of them wend around collecting donations from the audience.

After the show, we had a sumptuous lunch and we were served with fresh vegetables, fruits, soup and the mud fish from the muddy ditch.

While having lunch, we were serenaded with a Vietnamese traditional song.

At around 0300H, we left My Khan village and head back to Saigon.

At Saigon, after having a dinner at the hotel, we decided to visit the famous night market. The night market is the "Divisoria" of Saigon. Most of the merchandise are apparels and trekking bags. 

I picked up a nice trekking backpack and a fleece jacket for 700,000 VND or Php1.4k after nearly an hour of negotiation with the vendor.

This concluded our day 1 adventure at Vietnam.

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