Markets

One of my favourite things to do on a holiday in a foreign country is to go to a place where the locals shop to get their groceries.  After leaving Rach Gia we took a three hour boat ride to Phu Quoc Island - which is actually closer geographically to Cambodia than Vietnam.  While on Phu Quoc we stumbled upon this amazing wet market and spent a good couple of hours just walking through and looking!

Sea-horses for sale, not sure if they are for eating of for medicine.

Dried sea-food.  The little dried shrimp were served to us a few times as something to nibble on before a meal, like nuts or chips! 

Ribbit!

 Justin stands out a little huh? Even though there is another Australian friend of his walking behind him!

 The butcher shop.

 Refridgeration - Phu Quoc style.

Chicken on tonight's menu? They are fresh!

Rach Gia

Rach Gia was the tiny town we flew to, its where we accessed the river to be able to get to the bride's home.  It was tiny, no fast food places, a couple of grocery stores, no big shopping centre, no tourism and certainly no english.  There is no way we could have managed there without some Vietnamese friends! We stayed in the fanciest hotel there and it was $20 a night. It was ok! We stayed here for two nights as the only real reason we were in this particular town was to get to the weddings.  We did manage to fit in some amazing meals, some of the more memorable were a cold beef and rice noodle salad dressed with fish sauce, lime, vinegar and sugar with fresh coriander, mint and chili (for breakfast - YUM - that'll wake you right up!), a pork dumplings and noodles in a spicy tomato broth (again with fresh coriander and mint - that stuff gets addictive) and my favourite discovery (though not a meal) was Vietnamese Ice Coffee (or Cafe su da - i managed to be understood by the end of the holiday when I ordered this in restaurants!)

The glass on the right is cold ice green tea, nothing to do with the ice coffee but it is served as a complimentary drink as soon as you go into a restaurant. So the glass in the middle has the cool little percolator on top which has the coffee grounds in it (a particular type of Vietnamese coffee) and the boiling hot water running through it.  The white layer on the bottom of the glass is condensed milk.  After all the water has drained through you use the spoon (provided in the glass of ice -see?) to mix the coffee and condensed milk together and then pour it over the full glass of ice.  The ice melts and chills the drink and you are left with an insanely tasty ice coffee that is reason alone to go back to Vietnam.  We bought all the tools while we were thee to try to re-create this at home but I don't think I can recreate the atmosphere.....



Justin shopping in the local grocery store.  As you can see - people there are generally a lot shorter than Justin. Note the shelves that only go up to his shoulders and trolley that looks like a toy.  And in the trolley? Tiger beer - a great beer available in Asia.

1USD=20,000 Vietnamese Dong.  Equals difficulty when trying to stuff such large amounts of currency into your wallet. Yes they are $500,000 notes. 

 Walking to our hotel - it is the tallest building you can see there in the distance.

Taken from the boat when we were coming back from the weddings - this is in a larger section of the Mekong Delta.

Where do I start?



What an amazing holiday! So many experiences... where do I start? Well starting at the beginning would make sense.... We overnighted in Saigon and then flew to Rach Gia where we travelled 45 minutes by boat down the Mekong Delta to where the two weddings were held.  A totally foreign environment like nothing I have ever seen before.  The hospitality, food and sights were amazing.  More photos to come.

This is one of the brides's families homes (where I am standing taking the photo is just in front of their house) looking out to the river.  This is where the wedding was held (and the party .. and the fooooood! oh my...)

From left to right - Butch, Kieu, Ut and Iron Chef.  Beautiful decorations and photos, and of course the brides were gorgeous!

 Climbing back onto our boat to make the journey along the river back to Rach Gia.  There are two boats in this picture (one was taking friends and family in a different direction up the river.  There was no other way to access these houses other than by boat.

You wouldn't believe it.

Crazy things afoot in town.... The last 24 hours in Carnarvon have brought about shootings, brawls, a fatal stabbing and wild rain storms.
A big funeral was on and members of families with long running feuds were both there...fights led to what will now be more funerals http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/06/3131122.htm This happened about two streets back from mom's house.
The hospital was 'locked down' this morning, as they were treating some of the injured also involved in this and other violent outbreaks around town... No one could go in to the hospital to see a doctor as they were scared more fighting would happen inside the hospital if the two sides of the angry families got inside... I know because I was at work and the patients were coming to me to ask if there was anything I could do for them as they had been refused help at the hospital.
The temperature soared over 38C/100F and the humidity was awful... and then came the thunder, lightning and rain.  A down pour of three quarters of an inch of rain in half an hour and big claps of thunder... then become angry rolling thunder that went on for hours...
It's been a strange day to say the least........

Xin vui lòng tôi có thể có một số rượu vang?

Or:  'Please may I have some wine?' in Vietnamese.  I'm ready!

Bags are packed, visas are sorted, the camera battery is charged and we are ready to go! Still a few more days of work left for us.. We couldn't take as much time off as some of our friends who are also going over - they are already there and having a great time.
There is about 12 of us in total going over there, the first night we are in Saigon we have plans to meet up somewhere with some of the others already there for dinner... I can't WAIT for the food :)