Ahhh...Nha Trang. The airport is 35km south of town but that gives us a lovely drive with beach glimpses along the way. What luck, we're dropped off two blocks from the hotel we wanted! 8th floor view over the beach, ocean, hills and city...just great! Nha Trang is laid back, with the locals out by 5am to swim and play tennis or badminton and walk and chat, with "morning" music projected on big speakers. Great food at Cafe de Amis and Pho Cali, where we get our first real Bun! Spent a day visiting the islands with sister Barb and brother-in-law Ernie which was great but crazy No 4 Boat Boys band entertained us with homemade drums and kitschy songs and dance...whoa. Pretty good snorkelling and swimming up to the floating bar for the free cheap wine though...
We make the easy decision to take the cheap, short flight to Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City as only the government calls it. We once again hop on the backs of motorcycles, unaware that this is the one place not to. Yikes, what a frightening, death-defying experience! Saigon moto drivers are fast and wily and crazy...somehow we both ended up in the same place, alive. Pollution is bad, of course, and the pace hectic. After a day walking in sweltering heat visiting pagodas, we decide to get the hell out of that city and head towards Cambodia via the Mekong Delta.
We tour bus it to My Tho where we start cruising the Mekong Delta. Of course we make the obligatory stops at various islands, to see a honey bee farm (fed on rambutan flowers) and coconut candy factory, and to listen to some traditional music. Motor through narrow canals and then we're rowed back in small boats powered mostly by women. We overnight in laid back Can Tho, where families populate the wide streets enjoying the evening temps and each others' company. We weave our way through the morning floating market, where we get a great glimpse of river life plus a coffee to go from one of the many boats. Toured some more canals and visit a rice paper and noodle making factory...definitely no FDA regulations here! Bus to Chau Doc which is another laid back family town, with a great view of rice fields and the Cambodia border from Sam Mountain. Had been avoiding fruit and ice shakes until now, but the heat and their yummy refreshing taste finally won us over (assured the ice was made from bottled water and assumed the hands and knife that handled the fruit were completely hygienic...) The final boat trip up to the Cambodian border was relaxing, and we so enjoyed waving to all the children on the shores who eagerly called out to us.
