January 19th, 2010

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Tuesday Jan 19 Can Tho to Chau Doc Mekong Delta

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

It is Wednesday morning 6 a.m. I am having my first Cafe Sue Nam. It is still dark. We are to be picked up at 6.15 to go to the boat that will take us from the Vietnam border to Pnom Penh on the Mekong.

Tuesday was spent all morning on the river at Can Tho. First to see the floating market. A bee’s nest of small river barges and row boats exchanging vegetables and fruits brought in from all over the surrounding villages. The smaller boats would purchase from the larger ones that carry one item, cabbages, pineapples, etc. and then take it to their market stall or shops. A very colorful place. We then proceeded up a side branch to a noodle factory. This was fascinating. Very primitive and age old process but extremely efficient. The chaff of the rice is used again as fuel. Just as the coconut shells were used as fuel in yesterday’s visit to the candy factory. Met new people made new friends, here in Chau Doc we ran into two brave Dutch ladies, in their late fifties, from Utrecht and Amersfoort who are cycling through Thailand, cambodia and Vietnam. Next blog from Cambodia.