Cai Be - Vinh Long Mekong Tour

Molly, Joyce and I departed nice and early at 7am with 9 TAIK staff. Took about 2 hours to reach Cai Be where Phu, our friend from Vinh Long (he owns a tour company there) personally took over the tour and led us through. Here's our itinerary :

Toilet break (no, not in the pond!!!)

Photo time with TAIK Staff

All set and ready to roll

First stop - Cai Be Floating Market

Coconut Candy Cottage Industry

Pop-rice is next

Flattening the caramel-coated pop-rice

Buying goodies

Row, row, row your own boat...

Trying hard to row without rolling over...

Lunch : Elephant Ear Fish - a Mekong Delta Speciality and lots of other Vietnamese cuisine. Thank you, Mrs Phu

And finally, kissing the orange at Vinh Long market

The trip back was delayed because of road works and jams. Took 3h 15m when it should be 2h 30m. And we left Vinh Long early - 2.35pm. If we had departed later, we would have taken even longer to reach back. Always be prepared to be stuck in jams when coming back from a tour anywhere in VN.

Molly's here

Molly's here with Nicole for a short visit from 19 to 22 Sep 09. Molly is Joyce's aunt. Booked the Cu Chi tour this evening and had a good dinner at Hai Lua Restaurant in Ben Thanh Market. Had a shopping good time, esp with the Crumpler bags. The backpack went for 500k, the camera bag for 350k and the 2 laptop bags for 390k/350k- the cost of all 4 bags is less than 1 in SG!!! 

Tomorrow, we're making a trip to Cai Be for our Mekong tour.

Pastor John's visit

Pastor brought along 2 new friends for me - Alan and Kian. It was great to share with them my experiences here and to learn about their experiences too. Pastor also introduced Fred Ong who has been here in HCMC for 19 years - sure have a lot to learn from him. Thank you, Pastor.

Kian, Pastor and Alan at TAIK

Raj's here ... again

This fellow loves HCMC - he should shift over. Thanks for the button mushrooms, mate. Raj thought someone was hoarding BMs here but the fact is that VNese do not take to BMs - they prefer straw mushrooms. Had a good time catching up over dinner. See you back here soon.

Visiting Time again

Mom and Dad came for a week's visit - dropped by to see the 2 kindys and went to Mui Ne too. Did quite a bit of shopping. Brought Dad to see Binh Dien Wholesale Market, the biggest wholesale market in SE Asia. Just dropped them off at the airport for their flight back.

In Sep 09, it'll be Raj, and then Pastor John and his friends before Nicole and Molly pops over. Wonder who'll be coming next?

Mum @ ASYC

Mum @ TAIK - helping Suri to colour

Dad saying hello to Yogurt

Dad @ Binh Dien Wholesale Market - the biggest in S E Asia.
In the background is one block - there are 6 of these. See plan on next pix.

No we didn't...

Yes we did ... and then, no, we didn't. That's the problem doing business in VN. It's hard to get them to keep their word. So there goes Kindy No 3. The excuse - they need to complete the toilets and need another 6-12 months!!! 12 months to complete a toilet??? I must say they totally and completely have no imagination - can anyone help them come up with a creative excuse not to rent to us?

Rambutan and Durian Season

It's the rambutan season now over in HCMC - or chom chom as they are known here in Vietnamese. There seems to be two varieties - the cheaper, bigger ones going at 3,500 (30cents) to 5,000VND (40cents)/kg (or sometimes 3kg for 10,000VND) and the smaller, sweeter but more expensive cousin at 15,000VND/kg. Wonder how much is a kg of rambutans in Singapore now?

Durians are also in season now, the ones I buy are 25,000VND/kg and they're good.