Vietnam: Chapter 6, Mekong River Delta Blues

OMG I was mentally preparing to wrap up this trip and move on to current events but we're not even close. Here goes.

We got roughly two hours sleep on Saturday night, the boys probably got less, and we completely overslept and nearly missed our tour to the Mekong River Delta. We got our act together in 15 minutes and ran to our bus. Sadly, we missed the amazing breakfast we had at the hotel the day before.


We were in good spirits though. We shared our ipods, and Cora and Phil did their best guitar hero.


We made a pit stop and shoved "grilled cheese" sammys down our throats. They were actually really good!

And then we boated.


It was hot and humid and sunny, so we picked up traditional hats before setting sail.







First stop, snake wine and coconut candy.






Kinda like the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland, sans the corny jokes that I adore.








Harnessing my best Britney Spears I'm a Slave for You.


Y siesta.


Topu anyone?


Lunch!




More cruisin


Loved her outfit.


Delta traffic.


I have a part time job.

During the long ride back home, we played an outrageous round of charades, and it was then when we nicknamed each other "homobears." There were lots of laugh, lots of adventures on the tour, and when some of our tourmates found out we were highly successful working professionals in Hong Kong (well, at least my traveling companions are) it shocked the hell outta everyone. We dug it.




There was lots of traffic on the ride back.


Indulged in one last nice meal.




For tons of food and a round of drinks, it came to just over a million dong, which is about $15 USD per person.


We had a drink at a rooftop bar, hired a moped to take us back to the hotel and called it a night.


Me and Cora's hotel room, a cute little hotel for $14 USD a night!


Woke up a few hours later on Monday morning to catch our flight back to Hongkie. Watched the sunrise from the airport.


Our flight didn't have that many people, so we spread out and passed out.

Ok, I think I can put Vietnam to bed. It was amazing, the food was consistently fabulous, and one of these days I'd like to go to Hanoi.

The uncut collection of photos can be found here.

Vietnam: Chapter 5, The Best Coffee I've Ever Had, The Most Whisky I Ever Drank, and Being Chased Down Alleys by Rats

Can you believe all these adventures were packed into one weekend? And we haven't even hit Saturday night yet. So, Let's GO.


After a much needed 2 hour nap, a nap that was just as long as our nights of sleep, we frantically got ready for dinner with Powers and Kiki. The boys downed a beer on the walk.


This place was so scrumptious.


It's all about the bun thang.


My Vietnam FFFFFamily.

Cora and I wanted some coffee to perk us up, and what was served to us was hands down the most amazing coffee I've ever had in my life. It really changed my life.


But it didn't stop there. At some point we decided it was a good idea to order a bottle of whisky and make irish-vietnamese coffees, and they were delicious.


Shots of whisky go great with any vietnamese dish, right?

And here are the obligatory food shots. All insanely tasty.












All for the bargain price of $972,000 VND, which is roughly $60 USD... tons of food for 6 people and a bottle of booze!

This was at a higher end restaurant too, which was nice except we still spotted a giant rat!

Then we went to some club in a hotel, I think, and there we were not allowed to take pictures so I quickly snapped one in the ladies room.



We then hit up some bars closer to our hotel, played a crappy round of pool, Daven disappeared for an hour on a personal scooter tour, the girls were tired and the boys were drinking more, so at some obnoxious hour like 4 or 5 AM, Cora and I walked Kiki home. But, these little hotels get locked up for the night, and there was no doorbell or anything to ring her in. So we walked Kiki back to the boys and Cora and I ran back to our hotel as rats kept coming out of every corner.

Vietnam: Chapter 4, Starving and Wandering

Let's continue. There's a lot of catching up to do.



After spending a half day in the Cu Chi tunnels, we were brought back to Saigon. We had a very early breakfast, and for some reason, even though we were starved and delirious, we couldn't settle on an appropriate place to eat until 5 pm.

So we wandered. We walked. A lot.


We walked to the Reunification Palace. After all that, we ended up not going in, but these guys did. Note the people wearing masks. This is pretty common in Asia. People wear masks if they work outdoors or around a lot of car exhaust or fumes, or if they are sick as not to infect other people.

So we kept walking.


We saw the Notre Dame Cathedral. But this one does not have flying buttresses! Lame.



More walking.




We had some of this street meat. It was delicious!


A bunch of boys were jumping in the water, climbing out, jumping back in.


Millions and millions of scooters... that you have to dodge.


Ben Thanh Market


It's really cool but we didn't spent a lot of time there because we were so hungry. There were eating places nearby but we couldn't figure out how to get to the one we wanted to go to. The boys bought t-shirts that said "Same, Same, but different" as these are really popular items, and Cora bought some fruit. I was delirious.





We were so hungry that we hired a bike peddler to take us to the expat area, close to our hotel for grub.






Our driver


We were pretty cranky and tired, but this meal was worth waiting for.


Pho


Some kind of vietnamese pancake


Egg rolls. Freakin scrumptious.


The best tofu Daven has ever had.


And then, we were out.


But then again, we were just trying to blend in.