Back to the civilization or so. But before getting back we passed rice fields which are everywhere.
Arriving in Saigon it went dark. There is no such thing as a long twilight, it's just getting dark. We asked a couple of locals, where we could find some good food. And no, we don't mean McDonalds or so, we're looking for good vietnamese food. So we got a more or less precise description how to find the place. We are by the way the both of us and Liz, a friend here from Suzhou who's spending this holliday with us.
Just one hour later and a lot of contact to the people in the streets we found the restauranr. The menu was in vietnamese, sure, it's a vietnamese restaurant. Unfortunately there were no pictures in the menu also, we don't speak any word in vietnamese and the witresses not much english. Anyway, we thought we ordered some typical food and some shrimps. Well, the shrimps turned out to be a lizzard. We don't recommend lizzard to anybody. Too many small bones and really chewy. Maybe the lizzard was just too old.....
The next morning we headed to the Mekong Delta. But before we had a full speed sightseeing tour through Saigon. First stop was the gouverment palace - from outside. Maybe somebody remebers the picture of the tanks from the communist armee as they rolled over the fence, the day the republic of vietnam was announced.
Around the palace the traffic rushes in chaotical terms. The try to regulate it with traffic signs seems a bit helpless.
Next stop is the Notre Dame cathedra. The french been there long enough to copy some of the buildings from europe. Now we know, who started the fake markets in Asia......
The cathedral is located in downtown Saigon, full of tourists, trades, tamer and for sure photographers. Notre Dame is a favourite motive for weddings.
A couple of steps away is the main post office. Also this was build by the french in the end of the 18th century. And it's still used, no tourist attraction. Ok, there are some souvenir shops, but not that many.
Christmass is comming soon, so the shopping stress for the gifts was on a really high level. Stupidly the sales ladies were not bargling at all. Maybe too many tourists.
Passing the crowds we drove to the theater.
As everywhere in front of official buildings stands a statue and it's always the same guy: Ho Chi Minh, who else ;-)
The municipal is also for the locals a famous weekend spot. Take out the mopet, put on the family, drive there, take a picture for the album and off to the next attraction.
On the way back to the car we could study some contruction workers. With a safety rope, wow, long time not seen in China.
Next stop is My Tho city, in the middle of the Mekong Delta. From there we board a boot to an island for lunch. We took it on the island of the turtles, the other are the islands of the unicorn, the phoenix and the Dragon. We were really curios, which animal we'll get for lunch ;-)
The town itself is not really nice to visit, so we headed directly to our privat boat.
The Mekong is a big river. wide and brown and additionally there are floating water magnolies. The traffic is similar to the streets but we managed to reach the turtle island withou any bigger collision.
Here the whole live happens on the river. Even the shower is taken on board, why not, this saves plenty of time in the morning.
45 minutes later we arrived. That's Vietnam as we imagined it. A lot of water, some swamp, hidden cottages in the jungel and a load of lotus flowers.
Lunch was delicious. Starting with the Pho, the typical soup with thai basil and other herbs. Regina is addicted to it, no day withou Pho. The elefant ear fish was served in a rack, so you can chop finely the meat from the bones, put it into rice bread and add veggies and sauces as you like. As we said: Yummie delicious.
After the siesta, hey, it's freaking hot and nobody works over lunch time, we went to the coco sweets maker. Just boiled coco milk, sugar and some other ingredients like ginger or durian. Also yummie.
With the horse car we had a island round trip, passing big enclosures for the roosters. Fighting roosters. Officially it's illegal to do the rooster fights, especially if there are bets included, but it looks as nobody is really taking it serious.
A walk through the jungel showed the variety of plants. Lucky us only plants and no animals like snakes or whatever.
The stop at the cafe in the middle of the jungel serving fresh fruits and tea, wait a moment, that's a completely different story......
Mopets.....
....very seldom seen with only one rider.....
