Our Mekong Adventure Part 2

So after a great nights sleep in a very comfortable bed on board the AmaLotus it was a early start for our first tour of the day. But first it was breakfast in the Mekong Restaurant, breakfast was buffet style with plenty of choice from the health conscious of Muesli and Grapefruit to the hearty breakfast of a Full-English.

Our first tour after breakfast at 08:30 am was to the town of Cai Be which is a river-land mixed town and rural district of Tien Giang Province in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam. We travelled on a local boat from the ship passing the famous floating markets with thousand of boats and rafts anchored along the two sides of the river for kilometres. Cai Be is a huge draw for the locals in terms of food and merchandise,  with stallholders selling from the large boats, hanging out tasting samples from large poles to passing boats. What an experience of how the 300.000 population of this town of how they shop and trade on a daily basis.

Once ashore we visited a rice paper manufacturer and coconut candy store, where my wife Mel tried her hand in wrapping candy. The workers at this place can easily wrap 1,500 sweets a day, Mel took around 45 seconds to wrap, which means if over an 8 hour shift with no breaks she could manage about 640 sweets a day – don’t give up the day job Mel! I also had a drop of the local stuff – Snake Wine which tasted very much like a Whisky!

Cai Be is not just important to the locals but it is one of the most important centres for the distribution of agricultural products, especially tropical fruits for the whole region as well as the entire country. We also visited Cai Be’s 19th Century French Gothic Cathedral which is a photogenic backdrop with it’s elegant spire which dominates the river.

It was then back on the boat to transfer back to the ship for a presentation about Life on the Mekong River from our Vietnamese tour guide and then Lunch whilst sailing to our next destination of Sadec.

As it was an early start and the effects of our journey the day before was catching up with us, we decided to stay on-board and not do the tour in Sadec. So we made our way to the top deck and sunbathed whilst having a dip in the refreshing pool and having a few beverages and forty-winks. I felt a little guilty not going ashore to Sadec, as you want to do everything you can when you have an opportunity to visit a place this. However, I did feel a little less guilty when I saw many other passengers staying on-board and relaxing as well.

Next time Tan Chau, crossing the border to Cambodia and Phnom Penh.