We woke up at 6.30am in the morning. After breakfast at hotel, we went to Mekong Delta trip for whole day. The van took us at 7:30am at the hotel. The journey to reach Cai Be Jetty was long, so we stopped at Mekong Rest Stop to buy some stuffs, food and rest.
Mekong Delta (Cai Be Floating Market) - One Day Tour
The van took about 4 hours and 30 minutes to reach Cai Be Jetty.
We took private boat for an exploration of lush vegetation of Mekong Delta and the lively floating market buyers bargaining.
Suddenly, the sky turned dark and rained heavily. It was super cold.
We decided to visit local village first and find out how is their life.
Welcome to Cai BeTourism
Various type of cap sell at Cai Be Jetty.
The young child expression
Foreigners waiting for their boat.
We took private boat for an exploration of lush vegetation of Mekong Delta and the lively floating market buyers bargaining.
Private boat for exploration of Mekong Delta.
You can see the two layer on the photo above. The white layer was heavy raining.
No more floating market buyers bargaining due to heavy rain.
We decided to visit local village first and find out how is their life.
From here we had a chance to see some special products like rice
crispies making workshop, rice paper making workshop and coconut candy
workshop and 'tuak' (rice wine) making workshop.
Cai
Be, one of the many well-known floating markets in the western region
of southern Vietnam. The Cai Be Floating Market is always busy, bearing
all the characteristics of the locals’ life in the western region. All
the goods are transported to the market by rafts and boats. Rafts and boats are anchored along the two sides of the river for kilometers. Approximately 400 to 500 boats filled with fruits, vegetables and other products are anchored along the banks of the river. On the
floating markets you do not only find people buying and selling goods,
you also find floating restaurants, floating bars, floating gas
stations, and many other floating shops. Canals are here the easiest and
fastest way of transportation.
Floating fruit market（湄公河水上市场）
Floating Market Transportation
Small ferry transfer local people and motorcycles from two side of the river.
Photo (top): No merchandise is hung on a pole in front of the boat, so, it's closed.
Photo (bottom): The merchandise sold in each boat is hung on a pole in front of the boat to attract customers.
In short, the floating market was not as busy as I thought it was maybe due to after raining. Anyway, we spend sometime roaming around there. The tour continued visited the land market, where was the local people comes every day to buy foods.
Some of the vegetables and seafood sold in Mekong Land Market（湄公河巴刹）
After Mekong Land Market, we went to floating restaurant on Mekong river for our lunch. We spent around 45minutes on the boat to get to the restaurant and it was a good time for sightseeing and relaxing on the boat.
Floating restaurant
Pathway to floating restaurant
One of the local delicious food you MUST try, Elephant Fish!!!
The food we ate included elephant fish.
Elephant fish + slice of cucumber + vegetable + herb + sauce wrap & roll with rice paper. Taste awesome! Yummy^^
Group photo at floating restaurant
Our tour guide's T-shirt motto: SAME SAME BUT BETTER
We're really enjoyed the lunch at floating restaurant and tried the local recommended food, Elephant Fish. After lunch, the tour guide took us to do rowing boat on the small canal. The local people rides us along the small river to see tropical fruit gardens. Our rowing boat trip ends at one of the garden fruits on the island.
The local people rides us along the small river to see tropical fruit gardens.
Canal Rowing Boat Ride（湄公河越南妇女划船游）
Vietnam Song Performance（越南歌舞表演） + Free fruits serve to you.
Group photo with 越南妹。
Group photo with our tour guide before went back to Cai Be Jetty.
Goodluck To You - See You Again!
Finally, the boat took us back to the van and the van took us back to HCM city.
After we reached HCMC, it was the time for dinner, the tour guide recommended Banh Cuon Hai Nam to us.
After we reached HCMC, it was the time for dinner, the tour guide recommended Banh Cuon Hai Nam to us.
It's located at 11A Cao Thang, P.2, Quan 3, HCMC. Operating hours: 7:30am - 10:45pm
The banh cuon dish is prepared fresh and hot upon ordering. Two rolls with
lettuce and mung bean sprouts for VND 27,000. Sooo cheap and sooo delicious. If
you don't know what banh cuon is, it's minced meat rolled in a thin
steamed soft rice paper.
Anyway, this is worth trying during your stay. Service is friendly and the menu comes with Vietnamese language and English translate.
Banh Cuon Hai Nam
LHS [top]: Sauce RHS [top]: cha, VND 12,000 [bottom]: Two rolls with
lettuce and mung bean sprouts, VND 27,000 (local Vietnamese delicious food, taste Awesome! You MUST try!)
Centella Coconut, VND 14,000
After filled up our tummies, we requested the tour guide to fetched us to Saigon Square and dropped us there. We're now free and easy time.
Saigon Square
It's located at 77 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia, District 1, HCMC. Operating hours: from 9:00am to 9:00pm. Frequented by tourists and local people, cheap copies of designer sportswear rub shoulders with fashion brands. The quality is fake but the price is still right but not too cheap. Just remember to bargain hard and never accept the first price that you're quoted.
After that, we started walking towards to our hotel located at Bui Vien Street. It's very evident with lots of tourists walking around. Lots of locals trying to get you the food also. There is a wide variety of hotels, art galleries, gift and fashion shops, restaurants and travel companies you can find along the street.
It's located at 77 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia, District 1, HCMC. Operating hours: from 9:00am to 9:00pm. Frequented by tourists and local people, cheap copies of designer sportswear rub shoulders with fashion brands. The quality is fake but the price is still right but not too cheap. Just remember to bargain hard and never accept the first price that you're quoted.
After that, we started walking towards to our hotel located at Bui Vien Street. It's very evident with lots of tourists walking around. Lots of locals trying to get you the food also. There is a wide variety of hotels, art galleries, gift and fashion shops, restaurants and travel companies you can find along the street.
Rooftop bar and restaurant at Duc Vuong Hotel.
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