I stayed up late last night talking to 4 of my gkids. Love that I can stay in touch with them! Rog got up early & went out for a morning bike ride to find an ATM which was about 6 km away. He came back with $4.5 million dong. That's $175 USD. But what was even better was he also bought me 3 Coke lights, cz & crackers. I ask to put one in the kitchen frig and then we both headed out for another bike ride on one of the side roads where there are only a few cars and several motorcycles and it followed one of the Mekong tributaries. The road was between the river & a line of homes. As we got farther from the main road, there were nicer homes…but not all for sure. We saw a few people who smiled and waved. Back at our homestay, I enjoyed my cold Coke Light in our cabana which I noted was mostly made of bamboo as was our bed, lamp shades, chairs, table and even the wind chimes! Such a versatile plant! We left there dragging our bags for about 1/4 mi (while the help was in a hammock) to the main road where our taxi picked us up & took us to the bus station. We climbed up on the top tier of the sleeper bus headed to Ca Mau…near the southern tip. We were near the front which made for a better ride except for the almost constant fog horn our driver used every time he passed someone…which was most the time. Not sure why we needed to it it! I think the motorcyclist did though as we got mighty close to them! Almost all wear helmets (albeit really baseball helmets) & the girls usually wear gloves & hoodies with the hood under their helmets…in 90 degree weather! We often went for miles through many towns with not once seeing a stop since or red light. The new sights on this trip were the many small family cometary plots. Most are right next to a home. Probably Christian or Chinese as Buddhist mostly cremate. We have seen a few Christian churches here also.
After a 4 hour ride, we found our hotel…quite gorgeous with huge grounds which included several restaurants, large gym, water park, huge pond and a nice pool which we immediately used. Then off to find some dinner. We went to their restaurant call Camping. We sat at a picnic table while they filled the grill next to us with glowing charcoal & then grilled beef chunks, shrimp & some veges for us. We noticed other customers were grilling their own. Cute idea. Back in our room, we called Chan & MM to wish them happy birthday. Next morning, we checked out tours available but decided to just call for a taxi & have them drop us at the Ho Chi Minh Memorial park which included a bird sanctuary. There was a traditionally built pagoda where a large statue of HCM was in the center surrounded by decorative items. The bird sanctuary was closed…for years it looked. So off we went to walk around the central market. Always beyond me how they can have so much fresh products artistically arranged & ready to sell & so few customers around. How can they possible sell even a fraction of it before it goes bad? We only bought 2 oranges. And the fresh meat? Don't even want to think about that. Across from the market was a clean air conditioned grocery store so we went in to cool off…and lucky for me…restock my Coke Light! Back to our hotel, we dove into the pool & then went to eat. We got 1/2kg of deliciously prepared shrimp…that's a lot of shrimp…for $8. Back to the pool & finished the day with a game of cribbage. Should I brag about beating Rog the last many games?? Probably not. As usual, we fell asleep listening to locals singing karaoke. I don't think I've written about it but almost every night since we arrived in Cambodia & now in Vietnam, we hear people singing (?) loudly. None so far I'd give even a 3 out 10. Really quite the popular evening entertainment and does lull us to sleep.
