Day 26: Boat tour through the Mekong Delta

Almost in the middle of the night, at 4:20 am, our alarm clock rang. It was still pitch dark outside, but it was time for us to get up and start our 7-hour boat trip through the Mekong Delta. Half an hour later, we took a transfer boat that picked us up at the dock of our accommodation and took us to the other side of the river. In the middle of the Mekong, we boarded a smaller wooden boat, where a friendly woman greeted us with two Bahn Mis. She started the engine and we set off towards the large floating market. We leaned back and watched as it slowly got brighter and the sun rose. When the first rays of sunshine hit the water, we finally arrived at the floating market. There were dozens of boats loaded with fruits and vegetables. We watched the bustling market and our boat driver cut us a fresh pineapple, which we devoured right away. The woman steering our boat was really nice and even weaved crowns out of bamboo for us. Since the sun was already quite strong, she also gave us a typical Asian rice hat to protect us from the sun. After sailing along the Mekong for some time, we arrived at the next market, which was much smaller and more geared towards the locals. Our captain herself made some purchases for her family and surprised us with delicious mangoes. Then we turned into smaller tributaries where we could explore the nature of the riverbed. However, the water level of the smaller river arms was too low, so we had to turn back. Before we arrived at a small restaurant for lunch, we had the opportunity to walk a few meters along the bank where we could see and taste various fruits. After lunch, we and another German couple who were also on the same boat tour were led by a guide through the restaurant's garden, where we were shown more fruits. Then we boarded the wooden boat again to start our return journey. On the way back, we visited a rice noodle factory and got a brief glimpse into the rice noodle production. We finally arrived back at our accommodation exhausted at lunchtime. We packed our things, had a snack, and then continued with four Poles who were also staying at the homestay. Our goal was to head south to take the ferry to Phu Quoc, the famous beach island of Vietnam. Since the speedboats only run in the morning, we had to spend another night in the port city of Rach Gia. When we arrived in the evening after a several-hour bus ride, the six of us went to eat and had a few beers. The food at the restaurant was very delicious, but since it was a local restaurant, communication was rather difficult. Since our gestural skills were unfortunately not sufficient, or we are simply too bad at playing charades, we had to place some of our orders using Google image search. All in all, it was a very funny and entertaining evening.