Tea With a Communist + Boring Ha Tien

Well today I shall be writing a blog entry after much demand from Zoe and mum back home. Apparently we've been bad correspondents so I'd better get writing!

From My Tho and the floating house we took a boat, then motorbike, then 2 1/2 hour bus to Can Tho which is the largest city in the Mekong delta although didn't feel too big after being somewhere like Saigon. It had a nice feel with a long waterfront with women always trying to get you to go on their boats to the floating markets.

We stayed three nights in Can Tho in the end(after contemplating  Sa Dec, Vinh Long and Chau Doc but we thought they were too tricky to get to) in a nice 'resort' outside the main town where locals tend to spend their weekends, fishing in the pond, eating in the nice restaurant(man they had a good avocado milkshake- and I don't even like avocado!) and, ofcourse, making the most delightful sounds using karaoke.

The first morning we woke up pretty darn early (5:15am) in order to take a small boat, with an utterly hopeless guide, to visit the two floating markets nearby as well as a rice noodle factory which was fascinating. The markets weren't as impressive as we had imagined but cool anyway, and the small canals that we went through were really beautiful.

 Our boat driver, much more competent than our guide, somehow whipped up this amazing plant thing whilst driving the boat out of some bamboo she just picked up.

Our guide told us what a pineapple was.



The rice noodle factory

In the afternoon we trecked in the swealtering heat to have a blind massage which was ok. Very cheap (£1.50 for an hour) but they were chatting away the whole time so not sure it was the mooost relaxing of massages!

Our second day in Can Tho we rented bikes and were trying to find some more small canals when we met Thinh(man, slightly geeky but very nice, 30, maths lecturer at Can Tho university) and Hanh(woman, 57) outside their houses who invited us back for tea that afternoon. She couldn't resist touching my white skin, the poor lady, she was just overwhelmed by my beauty! lol.

Hanh's house, obvs

So after cycling a bit (I still have bruises on my butt from lack of suspension and the poor paths) and getting over heated, we headed back to Hanh's house where we sat in her impressive front room (obviously showing off) and ate mango from trees in her garden, and pomelo, which I can now officially say I like. Kind of odd because only Thinh could speak English but when we found out Hanh used to work for the communist party we were like oooooohh, so that's why you have such a big house and impressive furniture. It was a really great experience, just to see inside a person's house and they were really lovely. Even the old uncle of Hanh said Dad looked older than his age. So charming the Vietnamese.

The next day we took a loooong journey (5 1/2 hours in total) on the bus to Ha Tien where we would catch the Superdong hydrofoil to Phu Quoc. We stayed 2 nights in this ghost resort with nothing really to do apart from a dirty pool. But we met a nice French couple who were the only other people there and who apparently had seen us in Can Tho as they were staying in the same resort. (they paid 2 million dong to get to Ha Tien though and we only paid 280,00. Yes!) Well, in fact I didn't think they were thaaat nice because we went out for a meal with them and I practically didn't say a word as they were just talking about politics and stuff I had no clue about but ahh well.  So odd as well, the lady asked Dad about me. She was like 'And Kate?' WHY DON'T YOU ASK ME YOU SILLY LADY! I must say, I am getting a little sick of everyone always talking to dad and ignoring me but I think it's because he's a man and he's older.

And now we're in Phu Quoc island which is just swell. There are a LOT of tourists and the beach we're staying on is covered in resort after resort but it's still really nice and you can't argue with sleeping less than 100 metres from the beach! Really cheap and yummy seafood here too and by jove did we have a nice breakfast just now!

Anyhoo, had better get on that sand and enjoy the weather (actually today it's raining...) so I'll stop writing now. Sorry if this blog entry has been really long and boring, kind of ranting here but oh well. Byeee
 xoxo
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