Day 10

 

Breakfast and coffee from boats on the water

May 19 Friday

We started our day early this morning with a 6:30am boat ride to a floating market in Can Tho. The floating market would be similar to our farmer’s markets, except on boats. A variety of fresh produce is sold, including potatoes, watermelon, and pineapple. There was a long pole attached to the front of every boat that had the product hanging from it so the buyers can easily see what each boat is selling. 

Really fresh fruit for the floating farmer's market

 

Making Rice noodles

We also took a quick pit stop along the river where we learning how to  make rice paper and rice noodles. It’s an interesting process that requires a lot of skill. Some of our classmates tried their hand at making rice paper but couldn’t do it as fast or well. We were surprised to see that the rice noodles came in a variety of colors like blue, orange, and green. We found out that the color of the noodles changes based on the herbs used to make it. 

 

We were able to shop a little bit as well as the shop sold many different candies, woodwork pieces, and fish snacks. After that we headed back to the boat to make our way toward the hotel. On our way back we saw many different boats that were heading to the market to buy produce or barges that were transporting large quantities of sand and dirt. One that was most surprising was a boat that was being rowed by an excavator. Along our way we were also approached by many smaller boats trying to sell us fruit and coffee. Many other tourists were making their way to the market as well to check out the local produce. We were back to the hotel by 8:30am and are now headed back to Saigon for our next adventure.

 Behn Tan Market

 

Te Dance II

Ben Tahn Market

After a 3-hour drive back to Saigon from Can Tho, we stopped to have a delicious dinner before returning to the hotel. The food here has been amazing, but many of us are ready for a good American meal again. 

Successful shoppers

Once we were settled into our hotel rooms again, we made our way to the Behn Tan market. The Ben Than market is the most well known and popular market in Ho Chi Minh City. From clothes and jewelry to food and souvenirs you can find basically everything at the market. Many of us had a good time trying to bargain for jewelry, chopsticks, and other fun things that we plan on bringing back to the U.S. It was very overwhelming for some, but others really enjoyed the excitement of haggling prices to get the best bang for our buck. We wish that we could bargain like this in the U.S.

Supper cruise

We finished the day with a supper cruise on the Saigon River.  It started with a buffet of the usual Vietnamese fare plus snails, oysters, and clams, all which were really good.   

Skyline with light shows

We then spent an hour or so going up and back on the Saigon River looking at all the skyscrapers having light shows.  On our deck a traditional Vietnamese band played and sang folk music, which was really interesting.  We got back to the hotel at 9:15 pm, and looking forward to starting our last full day in Vietnam heading to the Cu Chi Tunnels.