Category: Culture

Phú Quốc is the largest island in Vietnam. Phú Quốc and nearby islands are like the Hawaii of Vietnam with its white sand beaches, and fishing and agricultural economy.  Our trip to Phu Quoc starts with a pretty long ferry ride, but we occupy the downstairs eating instant noodles.

We then land and we have dinner at a restaurant called Xin Chao (Hello). And true to Phu Quoc style it is seafood.  Starting from the biggest picture clockwise:  My nephew eating, half shell clams topped with peanuts, a sweat and sour hotpot soup, fruit, fish coated in a red tseasoned sauce, crispy coated snail with a mayionaise based sauce, squid with bell peppers,

We then cheked into the Hoa Binh Phu Quoc Resort.  Hibicus welcomes us as we trek to our 8 room bugalow.   We then split into our rooms to rest.

After resting and getting settled into our rooms, off to the pepper farm.  It was Sophia’s first time seeing a pepper plant.

Then to the rose myrtle garden for wine and pictures.  I’m splitting these trips up so one page does not take forever to load.

After breakfast we went to Ben Tre & My Tho to see the islands Long, Lan, Qui, Phung.  Which are the four sacred animals of Vietnam.  Long is a dragon, Qui is the tortoise, Lan was translated as the unicorn island, however I would disagree with this translation.  Lan is traditionally a lion, as in the lion dance, and usually looks like a lion with a horn, however has some of the same mystically qualities of a unicorn.  Phung is a phoenix.

Fun fact, since my father had 3 boys and a girl, my father originally wanted to change all our names to “Kim” which means gold and these for sacred animals.  So…Kim Long, Kim Qui, Kim Lan, Kim Phung (which is me).  However, somewhere along the line he changed his mind.

We only saw the Lan and Phung island.  The other islands have very little people and nothing to see.  First up was Phoenix island where we explored the history of the coconut monk.  He want to liberate Vietnam, but because his dream did not come true he ended up becoming a monk and only ate coconuts until the end of his life.  The Coconut Religion was founded in 1963 by Vietnamese scholar Nguyễn Thành Nam, and later abolished by the Vietnamese government because it was deemed a cult.  People of the religion only consumed coconuts.  He was an eccentric person.

We then had lunch at the restaurant on the island with a huge selection of food. The hot pot was a fish hot pot which was delicious, however with my sore throat it was really hard to swallow.  I did eat anyway, and right before the pain of the swallow it was so good.  We had two of everything, and since there were lots kids we ended up having a lot of food left.  One of everything would have been enough for our group.

After dinner we went to “fish” for crocs.  The term for croc and alligators are the same in Vietnamese and there is no differentiation between the two species in general terms.  We didn’t actually fish for them, it was more like feeding them.

We then went to Lion (or Unicorn island as the tour guide calls it) and had explored a bee hive, held a boa with Sophia, and ate 3 products from the bees.  Those are honey, bee pollen, and royal jelly.  Royal jelly is a honey bee secretion that is used in the nutrition of larvae, as well as adult queens hence the name.

We finished the trip at the place where they made coconut candy and of course I have to buy a bunch for home.  Yes, followers, if I know you, you will get some Ben Tre coconut candy to try.  It is what is famous in the region.  We make a pit stop where we hear music, and have some fruit.  We then have a boat ride down the river and I’m reminded of my paternal grandfather who used to grow water palm.  This specific variety grows in the water and tastes like young coconut.  I guess my grandfather used to bring one up every time he visited my mom’s family.   We get on to a landing spot and tip the people on boats about 50,000d and on to our boat to head home.

It is a long ride home, and everyone falls asleep on the ride.  We wake up to have dinner in Long Xuyen at Dong Xuyen Hotel restaurant on the second floor and then head home.  My camera ran out of juice at this point, so Anne took a picture of our meal, but I haven’t received it from her yet.  It was bamboo shoot hot pot, spicy fried chicken, fried egg with meat, braised fish, boiled veggies, and ended with baby bananas.  They actually had a menu, and it looked like a place you can have a wedding at.  That concluded our trip of the Mekong Delta.  Tomorrow night we are headed to Phu Quoc, I have to hurry up and wash clothes and dry them otherwise I run out of clothes to wear.   Repack and go, this is a bigger group going.

Often when we are on the road, I don’t like to bring a lot of stuff, otherwise it becomes really hard to pack and theft is prevalent here, so I often leave my laptop at home and do my blog posts at home.  So see you in a few days.

Day 2 of our Mekong Delta trip starts at 5 am.  We wake up bright and early to go to the ports.  Day 2 is all about the river.  The Mekong Delta, also refered to as the Đồng bằng Sông Cửu Long, “Nine Dragon river delta”, because it empties into the sea through 9 rivers, however today it only empties into the sea with 7.  Mien Tay also means the western region.  The region comprises 12 provinces: Long An, Đồng Tháp, Tiền Giang, An Giang, Bến Tre, Vĩnh Long, Trà Vinh, Hậu Giang, Kiên Giang, Sóc Trăng, Bạc Liêu, and Cà Mau, along with the province-level municipality of Cần Thơ.  I was born in the province of An Giang, therefore this is trip is to give Sophia a taste of where I was born and allow her to explore the riches and culture the Mekong Delta has to offer.  Although I’ve been to Vietnam 6 times including this trip, once for 3 months, I have not explored much.  So, this trip is also to explore my home.  Sophia would not wake up so we make her go anyway.  The other two kids couldn’t wake up, so they stayed behind at the hotel.  We get on boats because this region is all about the delta.  From the boats we see beautiful sunrises.

Sophia was asleep, but I still don’t want her to miss today.  Our destination is Cai Rang Floating Market.

It is said that “not being in Cai Rang floating market means not knowing the land of Tay Do – an old name of Can Tho”. Cai Rang floating market, one of the famous floating markets of the Southwest, specializes in selling fruits and agricultural products of the whole region.

Every early morning, hundred boats gather together where their owners sell agricultural products. To be recognized easily, they hang out product samples on a long bamboo (called Cay Beo) in front of the boats, so that they do not need to cry about their wares as farmers do in the mainland market.  Here’s a question for you, what are some things that they sell that are not on the Cay Beo, and somethings on the Cay Beo that they do not sell?  Take a guess…I will answer this later.

The market also has most services of a normal market such as food, grocery sales, repairing service, fuel stations.  Of course coming here, we must buy something.  There is usually 2 people on each of these boats, one is the driver the other is the seller.  The driver will navigate their boats to boats who would like to purchase.  To buy something from our boat we wave someone over.  They take a hook and hook their boat on to our boat so we can see their wares.  The seller will then handle the purchase transaction.  The first part of the answer to what is not on Cay Beo but they do sell is food & drinks.  Of course you could not put food or drinks on the Cay Beo, but you are able to buy everything on these boats.  We bought some soybean milk for Sophia right as she woke up.  We also waved another couple to buy some fruit.

Cai Rang has to probably be my favorite part so far.  It was very fun to drive around and see the floating wares of the vendors.  Sophia wakes up just in time to see how you buy things on the boats and enjoys the warm soybean milk.

We go to Sáu Hoài also by boat where Sophia gets to make some Hu Tieu, noodles.  We buy some cute local wares for souvenirs and head back to the hotel for breakfast.  During our trip back we had a little bit of boat trouble, where a water hose went loose, the driver fixed it and back we went.

Back at the hotel Sophia was super excited to see her beloved American breakfast of bacon.  Oh how she missed bacon so much.   She has rice and bacon, and I have friend rice, bacon, sausage (which does not taste like American sausage, its more firm), mi vit tiem (duck soup in herbal broth), and banh uot (rice with veggies and pork loaf).  I can’t even tell you how good banh uot is, oh how I’ve missed you banh uot.  I finally get my mi vit tiem fix.  This was the perfect breakfast finshed off by herbal drink and fresh watermelon juice.

These past 2 days we’ve been exploring the cities of the Mekong Delta starting with Can Tho. We visited Binh Thuy ancient house to check out beautiful gardens, orchids and next door we bought a painting from a local artist.

We then went to see the fish at 7 Bon Fishery.  The special fish were the white catfish.

We then walked really deep into the woods to have a selection of local snacks.  Banh bo, banh da lon, banh chuoi, banh dau, banh beo, banh tran.  The tour guide made Sophia a shrimp out of palm leaves.

Then we go to the rambutan (chom chom) garden.  That’s is Sophia’s favorite.  She even got to pick it and we brought a lot back to the lunch place, however there were lots of ants on it. 

After that off to another place to have lunch. The lunch is special because each family contributes one dish to the meal.  Lau ca, goi ca, oc, and ca kho.  All these dishes were mostly fish based and so good.  We did not finish the food, because we had lots of kids with us. Sophia took to the snails.  She liked them a lot and even learned to get them out using toothpicks.   I would have brought to go boxes out because it was so good, but that’s not a thing in Vietnam.  Each dish is each family’s specialty and they were all delicious.  Then we rest on the hammocks until its time to go.  This is the life, good food, full tummies, and hammocks.