To start the day, we headed over to Chinatown, but right before we arrived, we were stopped by the cops. Our driver looked for some papers and then got out of the car to speak with the cop. He comes back, pretends to look for more papers and takes some money out to put in a pamphlet and heads back. A few more minutes pass and he comes back again, picks up more money and then goes back. During this time, Mike and I are completely quiet and our guide is not saying a word. After about 15 minutes and however much the payoff was, we finally left. More on this story later...
Chinatown was ok and then we headed to Ben Tre. Once there we got on a boat with our guide, Trong and a local guide as well, don't remember her name. We headed down the Mekong and saw very interesting things. This is the ferry to get from one side to the other!
We made a few stops along the way: at a brick kiln, so that was neat. They literally make them from clay and these are drying in the sun before they go into the fire and get that red brick color.
Next at a local coconut farm/business - they worked fast at getting the coconuts out. We also picked up some really good dried coconut candy here!
Floating down the river! It really was pretty, at least this leg of it.
Next stop, was the candy shop (think of the song now), literally. Here they made more coconut candy, but by melting it and adding nuts or chocolate or ginger and wrapping it up. We saw them make and wrap the candy and I told Mike it looked like a drug scene from a movie with the quickness of their wrapping...Good candy as we bought some!
Finally it was time for lunch....We took a local car to another small river, where we proceeded to get on a small boat and row to our lunch location. We arrived at a local house that prepares the meal for tourists. We were able to try local cuisine such as:
deep fried elephant ear fish(big fish in the middle) and fresh water prawns, as well as fresh and fried spring rolls. It was a decent lunch...too much food though
Now for the last part of our day, we were suppose to ride a bike to a house where the owner is an antique collecter. I have not been on a bike in like 15 years, so I was a bit wobbly to start with. Then I realize we have to bike down a very narrow path that we share with speeding motor bikes going in the same or opposite direction. At this point, I am still trying to get my barings and have to stop/move to edge of the path to let other bikes and motor bikes go past me. Alongside the path was either shrubs, forest, or a very dirty looking creek. I'm trekking along as best as possible and flipping out at the same, which finally leads me to slightly fall off into the brush. Thankfully I caught myself and didn't fall completely off, but did have the handle bars come into my legs. Finally we end up on a street and I am sailing on the bike until we get back to the small, narrow path. SOOO, the bike ride that should have taken 20 minutes, probably took 60 minutes b/c of me.
This is the house we went to...Antique collector, Mike, Amanda, Local guide
Here is what 1 of my bruises looked like the next morning...Believe me, this looks good compared to a day later, when it was dark purple and black
So after seeing this house, we had to get back to where we started. Our guide called the owner, who graciously came and took me back on his motor bike. I must say, I definitely enjoyed the bike ride in the forest, a whole lot more when I was not on the bike. Good thing I wasn't on the bike b/c I probably would have freaked again when we had to ride the bike out into traffic and through a round-a-bout....Mike was a pro and good for him. His comment later was "Amanda, I was so scared of you riding that bike and what would happen." ..... 2 bruises and laughing about it for the rest of our lives whenever we think about it!!!
So after our day, we found out we had a new driver to take us to the next city and hotel. When we asked the guide, he said "at the airport, papers in the trash, so now he has to go get papers." What we concluded from this is that they must have been cleaning their car at the airport prior to our arrival and he just happened to throw out the registration papers and was stopped there. When stopped again, he must have had a notice or flag on his record about it, so was forced to take care of it.
Mike and I really don't know, but very typical Vietnamese thing to happen. what can you do? Here we are on the boat earlier in the day, prior to the bike accident
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