Sunrise at the Floating Markets - Mekong River

At 5am we were led from our Guest house in Cantho down to our boat at the riverbank. The reason for the early start is so that we get to see the Sun rise over the floating markets.

To our great relief, the first thing our guide took us to was the coffee boat - a much-needed wake-me-up for that hour of the day! It was impressive watching the young lad on the coffee boat nimbly steering his way through the flotilla of market boats using only one foot.

We got straight into the action, drawing alongside boats filled up with fruit, fish, baskets, rice, livestock and so on - not forgetting all the families and customers going about their lives on the water.

 

 

Looks like Penelope Pitstop's wearing her pyjamas on the ferry again!

Duck thinks: "I knew I shouldn't have had that last cake, just minutes before the Weight Watchers weigh-in!"

Here's some of the families we saw:

Here's us along with the Canadian couple (Michelle and Clement) we took the trip with. Pineapple on a stick, anyone??

And of course, we had to try on the hat our guide (Su) was wearing:

As you can see, Hazel fits the part perfectly, whereas Pete...

After the markets, Su took us further down river, away from the town a bit. We were a bit puzzled when she pulled over to the bank and started hacking at the palm leaves on the shore, then set off again:

Little did we know, she was weaving some amazing stuff for us, while steering the boat with her knee.

As the trip progressed, we got further into the narrower waterways:

And stopped off at one of the rice paddies. Haze is demonstrating her technique:

Here's one of Pete's "arty" shots:

On the way back into town, we passed by a large boat of unprocessed rice (that's still in its husk). As you can see, at this stage it just looks like grain:

All in all, it was a lovely morning. :-)

Namaste!

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Running the Gauntlet

After 2 1/2 hours of vomit-inducing stormy ferry ride, the last thing we wanted to see on returning to the mainland was an entire line of moto drivers, all waiting to pounce - as per normal.

Amazingly there seemed to be some kind of system in place (where else do you see moto drivers lined up like this?) and we didn't need to resort to the cattle prod or taser to keep the hordes at bay.

Namaste!

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The Long and Dusty Road...

...That leads to... nowhere in particular.

With apologies to Paul McCartney, I figured this the best way to sum up Sunday, our last day on Phu Quoc. We wanted to explore some other parts of the island, so we hired a bike and set off. This turned out to be a mistake, as quite frankly there was nothing to see - at least, not within half a day's travel! Aside from Duong Dong, most of the island is incredibly un-developed, with hot, dusty, potholed roads with little or no view to speak of.

At one point the track got narrower and narrower, until we had to stop and ask a family for directions through the bushes.

A lady kindly offered to lead us back to the road on her bike, although help doesn't come for free it seems, as she asked a fee to cover her petrol - probably 4 or 5 tanks-worth it seems for only a 5-minute ride, but we couldn't exactly barter with her. No wonder they're smiling so much in the photo. This must happen to many a tourist on this route. Suckers!

It's well publicised that the Vietnamese Government wants to invest some $2 Billion US on turning Phu Quoc into something like Phuket in Thailand, along with its own international airport. We think this will be a crying shame, as it will undoubtedly lose a lot of its charm. That being said, it definitely could do with a little bit of money - some decent roads and some signposts will go a long way.

As it was, we got fed up with our 'Road To Nowhere' and turned back to enjoy what remained of the day on our beach.

Namaste!  

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Gone Fishing!

On Friday we headed off to the South of the island on a tour of the nearby archipelago for some snorkelling action. The ten of us boarded our small but comfortable boat and it 'put-putted' (ed: that's the sound of the engine!) off at almost glacial pace... We didn't mind the slow progress as there were plenty of deck chairs in which to lie back and enjoy the view.

The snorkelling wasn't the best we've seen, but it was all still enjoyable nonetheless. While we were out swimming, the crew cooked up a storm in the galley for our lunch of fresh seafood dishes, including some freshly-caught sea-urchins. Here you can see them cutting off the spines from the back of the boat:

And this is some of our group tucking into it all:

Later on we all had a go at line fishing off the side of the boat. Though we both completely failed to catch a thing, Hazel is convinced if we'd had some better bait (such as SPAM!) we could have landed a whopper.

Everything else caught by our more successful companions was thrown straight in the frying pan. You can't get fresher than that!

A nice surprise to end the day was when they took us to a remote beach on the other side of the island, where you could walk out 100 metres into the sea and it was still at waist-level. This brought on great frivolity for the group, splashing about in the water.

Anyway, here's the obligatory 'Couple Pose'. Breathe in now, and smile for the camera!

Namaste!

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Phu Quoc Island - Birthday Bliss!

Despite the delay in Rach Gia, we managed to get to Phu Quoc in time for Hazel's Birthday. It had been recommended to us by Rich and Charlotte, and it was definitely worth the seasickness Hazel endured on the boat over (and back).

Minibuses are available to take the ferry passengers to the main town on  the island (Duong Dong), although our driver took us directly to his beach-front guesthouse. Fortunately it was one of the two we had in mind, and it turned out to be great value - compared to some of the others nearby.

The sand was white and the sea calm and blue, and Hazel was in a very happy place! We were treated with a number of delightful sunsets while here. Check out the fisherman below:

As well as this one:

And this:

 

And not forgetting this one:

Here's a statistical breakdown of our time here:

• Drinking cocktails (or Saigon Beer), 10%
• Staying horizontal (sleeping/sunbathing), 60%
• Eating, 10%
• Strolling aimlessly up the beach and back, 30%
• Commenting on how amazing it all is, 7%
• Sightseeing, 2%
• Playing French people at chess (and winning!), 1%
• Floating (because swimming was too much effort), 10%
• Hour-long Massages, 4%
• Watching Newcastle beating Portsmouth on the telly 3-0, 0.6%
• Blog writing, 0%

All giving a total of 134.6% of a great time! :)

Namaste!

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What a feeeeeeling!

It's 5.30am at our hotel in Rach Gia, but the government-run loudspeakers on the street will not let us sleep. This morning they've decided to play the soundtrack from 'Flashdance' to help people on with with their day, followed by some (government sponsored) messages that we didn't understand. They choose a different song every day. Fine, it's their country. But why so bl**dy early? And why Flashdance?

We were told our afternoon ferry had been cancelled due to the weather, so we'd have to stay an extra day here. The initial disappointment wore off as Rach Gia turned out to be much better than expected.

We got on famously with the locals, and spent our day wandering round some of the shops:

Admiring some of the pastel-coloured buildings:

And enjoying the hustle-bustle of daily life in Vietnam:

Maybe as a consequence of Vietnamese people getting up so early, they often seem to forget to change out of their nightwear:

Women especially enjoy wearing their silk pyjamas round the clock, doing their shopping, cooking, or even tending to their water buffalo out on the paddy! Sometimes the men get involved as well, as the chap above demonstrates. By the way, he also gets my vote for Snoop Doggy Dogg in the Celebrity Look-eee Like-eee competition! :-)

Back at the Buffalo Soup restaurant, we tried out their signature dish (which I think is their one and only dish!), and it turned out to be one of the culinary highlights of the trip:

Here is Al getting a demonstration from the waitress on how to put it all together. You put some of the thinly sliced buffalo meat into the hot bowl of vegetable broth, throw in some of the huge herb mountain, and crack in some noodles. A couple of minutes' cooking later and you're ready to go. Served up with a delicious lemongrass marinade (that tasted very much like horseradish), it was a delight for the tastebuds. Not only that, but the 3 of us were fed for only 50,000 Dong, which is a mere £2! We'd love to be able to give you the name of the place, but it didn't seem to have one. All we can say is that it's on (I think) the second street on the left as you exit the hydrofoil dock, and it looks like this from the outside:

 

So if you're in town and want to check it out, happy hunting - and happy eating!

Namaste!

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Journey to Vietnam

On Sunday we got the minibus from Kampot to Sihanoukville, which is a bit like the Magaluf of Cambodia. Not really appealing to us, we only went there in order to get our Visa for Vietnam as it's the easiest, cheapest and quickest place to obtain it. Even if you apply in Phnom Penh they send your passport on down to Sihanoukvile, apparently.

The bars on the beach are packed so closely together you can normally hear 3 different sound systems at the same time, competing for your attention. There isn't much to see of the beach for all the furniture, beggars, sellers, food stalls and the like.

We did, however, rent ourselves a scooter and headed off to Otres beach a few km away to see the sunset. I'm including the picture below if only to remind myself I've never had so many people take such a close interest in my toenails! "Cut your nails, sir?"

Ray, the son of the family running our guesthouse spoke great English for a nine year-old, and so was the person to come to for visa advice, taxi booking and scooter rental - all for a small commission, of course. However, when it came to finding him the following morning for booking the taxi to the border, we we both pleased and disappointed to find our 'fixer' was in school!

Getting the visa itself was a doddle. We just turned up with our passports, filled in the form, handed over the money, then five minutes later we were out of there! In the short time we were there we met Al, a builder/scuba diving instructor from Philadelphia. He was heading in our direction that morning, so we agreed to share the taxi costs.

After passing back through Kampot and Kep, the road got progressively worse as we approached the border. As we crossed the border we were followed through by the troupe of moto drivers, despite us politely refusing their services. Little did we know they would be our only option on the other side!

In the few kilometres they took us from the border to Ha Tien, we (well, Hazel) had repeated offers and suggestions for us to take somebody's cousin's friend's brother's fishing boat to take us from the port at Ha Tien over to Phu Quoc - our destination.

Although it would have made for a shorter journey, we agreed we'd 'stay on target' and get the bus from Ha Tien down to Rach Gia, which is the better known route to Phu Quoc via the Hydrofoil.

Two and a half hours' bus ride later, and we pulled up at the bus station in Rach Gia, only to be mobbed (again) by moto drivers. One of the first things that struck us about Vietnam was that many of the street cafes seemed to have furniture like that in the local primary school - ie if you are 4' 2" and weigh 6 stone then you'll be pretty comfy! I'm sure many a person has come a cropper on these miniature chairs!

After we'd sorted ourselves out with a hotel for the night, we searched out somewhere for some scran, and discovered this great place to get Buffalo Soup. Here's us (with Al) conversing with the owner, who regaled us with wondrous stories of his love affairs with western women.

After a few thirst quenching beers, we were ready for a good night's kip... Or so we thought. More on that in the next instalment.

Namaste!

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