Mekong Elephant Ear Fish, Chinatown and Thien Hau Temple.

This is a picture of the Mekong Tour Trip

We had actually visited and walked 

around on one or two of these islands.

We must have taken the sampan ride on one

of the narrow strips between 2 islands.

 Tine to go back to the jetty to take the boat ride back to the mainland for lunch.

 Our same boatman waiting for us....and making full use of the time to swing on his hammock!!!

The above was a close up...you can see from the pic, how ingenious they are to find
places to hang their hammocks!

 On seeing us, he put away his hammock, up under the roof of  his boat!!!!

See, apart from the hammock, he stores life jackets in a mesh bag under the roof, highly visible and accessible, should the need arise.

 He pointed out the barge carrying sacks of rice headed for the mainland.

Enjoying her boat ride!!!

Alighting and getting ready for our lunch! We are promised elephant ear fish from Mekong!

First, they  load up on sun tan lotion, because have to walk around again!

 We have reached our restaurant.  It is set on sprawling grounds amidst nature and greenery.

A buffalo....the finest, fully grown specimen

 City slickers who have never seen a buffalo before, and they do not dare to go near it (they think it is like the bull of Spain ready to charge at the matador)

Lunch to be served with the Mekong Delta specialty - Deep Fried Elephant Ear fish.

 Welcome to Hau Ai, cute Vietnamese restaurant in an island setting.

See? Nice or not, we are to occupy one of these pergolas with attap roof, one dining table, one waitress serving us, and a side board with sink.

surrounded by palms, rich foliage, gentle streams fresh breezes and broadwalks.

Here she comes serving us drinks. Due to the vast grounds, she has to run hither thither to serve us and her other clients, and the kitchen hub is quite a distance away!!!

 Cheers! We are the lucky ones just sitting there waiting to be served!

 WOW!!!! Have you ever seen fish served propped up on wooden stands? and fried scales intact?

 this fish is best eaten wrapped in rice paper (moistened in water) with pho or rice noodles, mint leaves and basil and dipped with tamarind sauce....and a caterpillar or two.

 She just grabs the fish and tears out the meat and wrap them in the rice paper. Later we are too lazy to wrap, we just eat the fish right off the rack.

 raw mint, basil and other leafy herbs

 she also peeled the prawns for us : FOUR prawns only, for four of us, they do not like wastage

 yummy tamarind chilly sauce

 rice paper: the edible kind

 what the rolls look like

 Fried spring rolls, fried round batters with prawns

 boiled vegetables that we did not touch (too much food already)

 fried chicken

 so much food for four people!

 vegetable soup with mushrooms and LOTSA vegetables again!!

our friend the caterpillar that we did not eat, (that is the extras you get when you eat among nature)

In the afternoon we were driven back to Ho Chi Minh City to visit Chinatown

Cho Binh  Tay Chinese Wholesale market

So much goods, and stock, you wonder

how they keep inventory

Books galore

Chinese garden n the courtyard

son bought coffee for his office mates

Once he has chosen his blend of coffee beans, the two saleswoman

swung into motion grinding the beans, weighing and packing

the ground coffee into individual shrink vacuum packs

ready for presenting as souvenirs to friends.

Then we visited Thien Hau temple (not to be confused with Taman Seputeh's Thien Hou Temple

This ethnic Chinese boy from Malaysian is lucky,

 because he gets to keep his Chinese name and receive a Chinese medium of instruction education,

(plus being extremely fluent and proficient in English)

Vietnamese Chinese speak mainly Vietnamese 

and have a local name, losing their surname and chinese name FOREVER

 (like their Thai and Indonesian Chinese counterparts)