over the river and through the woods...

I decided to take the scenic route from Vietnam to Cambodia to meet up with Ellen and Emily. I took a 3 day tour along the Mekong river, including visits to the floating markets and a homestay in a bamboo riverside hut with a host family!

this was the 40 minute motor boat ride to the homestay in the town of Can Tho. probably the highlight of my mekong trip, and I got to share it with 5 really cool people...

there were 6 of us in the group; the family let us help with dinner (and they were kind enough to smile as we botched up traditional vietnamese spring rolls. it is tougher than it looks!).

It just so happened that we stayed at the family's home on the night of the annual "mid-autumn festival." It is a children's festival celebrated during the full moon in September. At night, the kids along the river construct these paper boats with candles, and place them in the water in the hopes that their wishes will come true. It was a beautiful sight to arrive along the pitch-black river and see all of these little boats floating off into the night. The son of our hosts made this batch (using the paper from his old homework assignments!)
The next day, we went out to explore some other villages along the river on our way to Chau Doc (the border town between Vietnam and Cambodia).

we donned these on the horse carriage ride through the villages. not touristy at all, right?
along the way, we visited a floating fish village. the family lives in a home that sits literally on top of the water, with a gate that extends down into the river. They raise tilapia and bassa (?), feeding the thousands of fish over 250kg of fish food pellets per day.


here's a quick video...

in one of the river towns, we came across this snake wine with real cobras and scorpions inside that is known as the "vietnamese viagra"... got a good chuckle out of the tag:



Here are a couple of the many pictures I took at the floating market. The boats advertise what's for sale by hoisting a "sample" up on a pole that's about 3 meters in the air!


That's all for now...Cambodia was incredible. My time there was way too short, and I can't wait to go back. Will post more on that later... off to Beijing tomorrow :-)