Canthos and Mr. Lovely

Back from the Mekong delta - a tourist trip of the cheap kind. For 25 US we took a bus tour of a couple of plantations, saw how coconut candy is made and also rice noodles. Saw a snake or two and took slightly sketchy boat rides.
Today we visited a floating market which really was quite cool.

The tour cleverly doesn't tell you the details of the itinerary so you can't squawk at the waits here and the waits there and the 2-3 hours on the bus with no stopping and little notice- leaving us scrambling for washroom facilities... Hilariously we had a major journey at the end of the day - 4 hours. We thought we were headed to the hotel but no first we had to get across the river on a ferry so another wait and chaos. Then another 15-20 minutes and the hotel. We thanked our lucky stars we weren't with the tour group we picked up who were stranded at the side of the road due to a bus breakdown and at the mercy of other tour companies. When we arrived after this 4 hour journey they were headed to a home stay with a Vietnamese family, dinner included (which cost them a bit more!) which meant another half hour trip on a motorcycle to a homestay complex of some kind.

Meanwhile we ponied up another 5 bucks to get air conditioning which is just as well since we gather the other rooms with a fan were a bit 'musty'. It was a 1 star hotel after all.

Anyway Mr. Lovely our tour guide was quick with the idioms, so entertaining and we got to places we never would have landed without the tour. Back now in our Spring hotel which is quite serviceable and close to a main drag in town.

Off to pick up our custom made clothes from a Ho Chi Minh tailor.