July 26 Can Tho, Mekong River Delta

Ryan: Bonjour, aujourd’hui nous sommes allees sur un petite voyage autour du ‘Mekong Delta’. Notre guide, Hieu, a prepare notre tour, car il etait nee a ce ville. Premierement, nous sommes allees dans un gros bateau pour rendre juste a l’ile Unicorne et on a gouter tous les fruits locale: papaya, banane, fruit du dragon, litchi, et quelques autre fruits pendant ecoutant la musique traditionelle. Prochainement, nous sommes allees sur une autre bateau pour rendre jusq’au l’ile du Tortue. En arrivant, nous sommes manger less petit pieces de ‘friandise du coco’ (coconut). Aussi, on a bu un boisson d’un melange de: le miel, le sucre et un peu de the de feuilles vert. Dernierement, nous sommes aller jusq’au hotel Victoria en voiture. Papa, Brendan et moi ont reserve une heure pour jouer au tennis. On a joue pour la bonne partie du l’heure avant d’aller au piscine. A 7:30 p.m., notre guide et ma famille, nous sommes aller au restaurant europeen. On a raconter deux familles de Holland et on a parler ensemble pour un long temps. Dernierement, c’etait 10:30 quand on est aller au lit.
Joe: Our trip to Can Tho was somewhat longer than expected. One year ago, the Japan-financed suspension bridge that spans the Mekong river collapsed after 6-years in construction, killing 75 workers. The bridge and a sister concrete span are still incomplete and will be at least another 2 years with work having been completely stopped during the investigation (our guide suggested that the concrete may have malformed during the intense raining at the time of the collapse). Without the bridges, the route is very circuituous and involves a river ferry that includes a wait of more than one-hour making for a remarkably long 120 km journey. Upon arrival we were treated to the beautiful Victoria Can Tho with its fantastic swimming pool, comfortable adjoining rooms, tennis court and ping-pong. Somehow we manged to pack them all in and enjoy a great dinner at the Nam Pho restaurant where we met two families travelling from Holland. The 5 daughters, Ryan and Brendan chatted up a storm that included digressions into Hollywood models like Naomi Kirk and soccer greats like Gus Hiddink, manager of Chelsea FC and currently the manager of the Rusian National World team. The dad of three of the girls, Tony, and Gus are long time friends. I love the people part of travel and oh, the 5-star hotel part :)