In order to get to our boat before lunch, we had another early start today. The Victoria hotel in Chau Doc is really lovely - and we enjoyed every moment here. The service was superb - apart from when the waitress gave my Pho to an Asian lady at breakfast. It is annoying that everyone assumes that Westerners want Western food. We don't and I never have!!! Anyway, I had to scoff the Pho as we were running a few minutes late for our pick up...
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| Bundles of Nem |
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| What Nem looks like on the inside |
Our driver and guide took us on a long road trip to Cai Be - which is where we were due to meet our boat. Along the way, we took a car ferry across one of the strands of the Mekong and I questionned our guide about a little green bundle of stuff that ladies were selling on the ferry. He tells me it is Nem - fermented pork - and we would stop to try some shortly. At our morning loo stop, there was indeed a Nem factory where the owner has gotten relatively rich selling these small pork parcels for about $2.00 for 10 parcels (that was the tourist price anyway). We tried it, and it was a bit unusual - mixed with peppercorn, chilli and garlic. I suppose the closest thing we have at home is jerky - but it really doesn't get close to this stuff.
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| Helly in the small lounge at the front of the boat |
We arrived at the dock for the boat and got transferred via a sampan (small boat) to our tiny piece of luxury for 24 hours. There are 4 crew on board (captain, mechanic, chef and tour guide/waiter) looking after us. We are feeling just a little bit special!
Our guide/waiter Dave, explained the tour, the menu and the order of proceedings for the day. We started with a small four course lunch, sigh - this is getting to be a bit much. The food was absolutely delicious - soup, prawns, fish and fruit. It was more than we needed.
As we cruised along the river, we just had so much to look at - the whole country just seems to be never ending - not like the distinct townships and cities we are used to in NZ and Oz.
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| A little house along the river |
Just as we were starting our afternoon walk of a local village, it started raining - but we didn't mind. We had umbrellas and a guide who knew every single plant and fruit along the way. Dave showed us: lemongrass, ginger, pineapple, egg fruit, dragonfruit, jackfruit, basil, oranges, starfruit, coconuts (green and red), and many others we can't remember. He seemed to know everything, and was able to pick small pieces of most plants off, and make us guess what they were. It was really entertaining!
Back on board, another four course meal rounded out our last full day in Vietnam.
Facinating trip on the boat down river. I laughed at your guide/waiter's name - Dave is not aVietnanese name😁but he certainly knew his stuff. How are you going to survive on kiwi food when you get home? I think we have 4 V restaurants in the Wellington area so I can see they'll be getting your patronage.
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