Laura’s birthday! Happy birthday, Laura!
After a good night’s sleep (for most of us), we had a quick breakfast and then walked up to the river area where we caught another boat to go and visit the floating markets. These things are incredible… the locals harvest their goods, load up their boats and then all meet at the same point in the river each morning to sell/trade their goods.
It’s predominantly fruit and veg, so things like pineapples; watermelons; cabbage; carrots; bananas… that kind of thing. It stretches across probably 2 thirds of the river and boats shackled to each other as they trade. Many have flag poles with the type of product they’re selling in a net at the top… say a watermelon or similar, to indicate what they have on offer.
We were treated to a pineapple cut in the most ingenius way. They take the bottom off, cut off the leaves at the top but leave the stem. They strip the outside of all the prickles, then expertly carve out all the smaller prickles in the flesh of the fruit giving it a zig-zag style. They then cut the fruit up the middle from top-to-bottom splitting it in 2, including the stem. You then hold the stem and eat away! Absolutely delicious! The fruit is apparently picked one day, sold the next. The princely sum for this treat? 10,000 dong. About 50c Australian. Baaargain.
We then took a trip further down the river to a local family’s livelihood of making rice paper. We were guided through the entire operation, from the breaking down of rice into a liquid, the topeka they add to it, the making of the large round cakes and then their drying in the sun. It was a million degrees in there – I just don’t know how the locals do it. Bloody interesting process though.
We had a quick tour of a rice factory after that, showing us the different types of rice, the way it’s broken down and packaged and so-on. From there, a fairly long boat ride back to where we started where we had a meal at a restaurant. Being fish-friday and the good Catholics we are, the choices were a bit limited as you can imagine, seafood is a pretty integral part to the local diet.
The bit we all dreaded came next – the 4hr bus ride back to Saigon. A worse driver than the first, a more cramped bus than the last and peak hour driving didn’t help the cause. Still, it was an adventure and we made it back safely.
To celebrate Laura’s birthday, we ventured off to a nice restaurant and then of course, back via the markets, where Ben bought himself a watch to celebrate Laura’s birthday.
We learnt a heap more on this overnight trip… looking forward to flying to Da Nang tomorrow (Saturday) and then onto our hotel in Hoi An!