One day it started raining, and it didn't quit for four months. We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath. Shoot, it even rained at night...
Forrest Gump
Yes, it rained today even though the monsoon isn't due for at least another month, but more about that in a minute.
This morning we packed up and headed out of HCMC. We headed back the way we had done Thursday over the Mekong, stopping again at the "happy place" then continuing on to a temple of the Cao Dai religion. It was started after the French introduced Catholicism. The people who had been Buddhists were confused about who they should be worshiping, so they created a religion where you can worship whoever you want. In the temple are images of Jesus, Budda, Confusious, and other deities. The place is highly decorated and brightly coloured, plus offers numerous worship times for the time poor.
We got back on our bus just short way, then we met our boat. It was everything we could have wanted, a low wooden boat, with a bamboo roof and a hammock in the back.
We headed across a wide stretch of river to an island where we boarded tiny canoes and were rowed up the small canals that intersect the island. Unfortunately the tide was low so we didn't get to go into the real tight ones where the palm fronds cross over your head but it was still exciting.
Back on the larger boat we went for a cruise around the floating market. It is a real market, not a touristy thing and by then it was late morning so it had mostly finished, we will see another one tomorrow. Each boat sells one type of thing and they advertise by hoisting that thing on a bamboo pole above the boat so it can be seen from a distance. So for example if they sell yams, they have yams up there, if they sell watermelons, there is a melon up the pole.
We went on to a candy making place. We saw rice "popcorn" cakes and coconut candy being made. The whole family is part of the venture, with the men generally doing the heavy hot cooking and the women packaging the results at the speed of light. It was very tasty and while obviously set up for tourists to watch, still a good idea of how family industries work.
Back on the boat we headed up the Mekong. It was exactly what you have seen in all those movies about Vietnam. The wide river dotted with water hyacenth, the palm tree covered river banks lined with small villages and boats moored. The river itself is teaming with activity, boats carrying loads of everything from an entire boat of rambutan, to one of pineapples, to loads of dirt. We saw someone diving for the river mud to take back to fertalise the fields, other people were fishing.
We headed into a canal that divides a massive island. The going was slow as the tide was low, but it was very pleasant heading along the river. We took turns in the hammock, drank coconuts (Mikey finished about 5 of them) and ate the gorgeous basket of fruit which included rambutans, bananas and longan.
Our next stop was to hear some local music. They were really cute in how they acted out the songs and it was very interesting learning about the instruments, but it sounds somewhat discordant to my ear.
A few minutes further up the river and we came to our place for lunch. We had been eyeing off the looming storm clouds for a few hours and just as we arrived, down came the rain. Still we were under cover and being fed mountains of delicious food so we were happy. There were a few things which our tour guide seemed particularly excited to feed us, water chicken and an unidentified meat to be precise. Some of us (me included) pretty quickly worked out what we were eating, but the look on Meg's face when she realised she had just eaten frog and coconut rat was priceless. Her discomfort was truly hilarious, however they were very tasty so I don't know what she was worried about.
There had been an option for another bike ride, but with the rain still coming down we retired to hamocks, theoretically for a rest, but mainly for gossip and more teasing of the still mortified Megs.
As it turned out that teasing would continue. Eventually there was a break in the rain, so it was back on the boat, over to the mainland and onto the bus for the journey to our hotel. It was slow becuase of the pouring rain and as we drove along Megs began to feel a rather urgent need for the "happy house". We stopped at a petrol station and she bolted out into the pouring rain. We were laughing as we watched her make her way across the flooded landscape, however when her feet disappeared into the mud we did start to worry. She made it and came back, muddy and sodden, but much relieved.
As we drove on the rain continued to pour down. Everyone had donned ponchos on their scooters. We saw small children almost completely enveloped and one guy riding along with about 20 ducks sticking their heads out.
As we arrived into Can Tho city, the puddles seemed to be getting extremely large. They were laping up the car wheels till they were half deep and flooding across the entire road, but it was when we noticed that it was actually lapping into the shops that we asked if this was normal. The answer was a defiinite no, we had arrived in a city that was flooded. We made our way through the streets, having to detour through the back streets at times to avoid flooding the bus, but eventually we made it to our hotel and through some brilliant driving and parking didn't even have to wade through the water.
Of course the first thing we checked (even before we checked in) was the massage situation. We had to go in shifts but we scheduled it! Unfortunately the masseuses were universally panned by Kieran, Petra and Megs who went first. Their assessment (which the clothing those girls were wearing appeared to back up) was that if you wanted a happy ending it might be the place to go, but for actual massages, not so much.
After a few hours the rain had stopped and the floods had drained away, so we went out looking for dinner. Because of the rain the usual night market wasn't really running but our guide had told us of a good restaurant. We should have noticed the complete lack of Vietnamese people eating there and the large numbers of very white tour groups, but we were hot, hungry and tired, so we sat down for a very ordinary meal. I'm pretty sure standard food court fare in Australia would be tastier.
Tired and a bit disappointed we are aiming for an early night. But the tour continues tomorrow and I'm sure it will be fab.
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