I know that this image was posted earlier on Facebook but I’m proud of it and wanted to make sure others got a chance to see it whom are not a Facebook contact of mine. Plus, this morning I finally have some time to write an blog post of the happenings in Vietnam. 

So, today we are on the island of Phu Quoc. We had arrived yesterday in the afternoon after a one hour flight from Saigon(Ho Chi Minh City).

First let me tell you about the Mekong Delta. It’s a HUGE  area approximately 39,000 square kilometres (15,000 sq mi). It’s where the Mekong empties into the South China Sea. There are many islands in which the Vietnamese carved water ways into the muddy islands to have easy boat access. It’s really amazing to see all the waterways. They spider all over!

We had did a two day and one night home stay tour of the region. Transportation included buses, motor boats, sampan boats(small row boats), and even some cycling on a big Vietnamese cruiser bike. The participants only included my wife, Trish, and a Austrian girl, named Romana. We had piggy-backed occasionally on a larger tour but essentially, it was just us three and our guide, Wang, who spoke great English. The small group made the tour extra special.

The home stay was great too. The four of us; Trish, Romana, Wang, and myself, stayed one night with a local family on Hoa Ninh island. The island’s population is about 40,000 but it didn’t seem that populated. The island is filled with water routes that are accessed by motor or sometimes, sampan only. The family at the home stay also taught us how to cook a Vietnamese dinner which we ate. It was DEE-LISH! I am sure when we arrived back home that we will be making home made spring rolls and noodle dishes for the next three months.

During the second day, we did our guided tour via boat to access different parts of the island to visit a factories. They included rice paper, fish sauce, sea salt, and two coconut candy factories. It was amazing to see everything hand made. No machines or robots and only whole ingredients, no additives or preservatives. A few images below are samples of what we saw.

Anyway, I wish that I had time to type on but I must go now. Hope to catch up with you soon with images from Phu Quoc.