Men's Day

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After we woke up our first stop was the local market. We were guided by an expert and it was our opportunity to try and find all of the foods we had not tried before. The fruit and vegetable market was bursting with amazing fresh produce and the mixture of colours mesmerising! We collected a variety of strange and wonderful things made with rice, small fried buns, and odd vegetables!


On the way back from the market we stopped to buy crabs. These little fellas live amongst the paddy fields. We were shown the difference between the male and female and how they are cooled in ice to 'put them to sleep' before they are peeled. It was very interesting! These little critters seem to share their home with fish and snails and everything is for eating. We continued our journey past a small nursery school and as tomorrow is teachers day in Vietnam, the school was full of flowers from parents and local businesses. The teachers will be given some special treatment. It was wonderful to see how well respected teachers are in Vietnam. A rather different story to back home.


We deposited our goodies before going out in search of a different variety of mushrooms that we needed for dinner. We found them but couldn't find the tofu shop selling hot soya milk which we really like. However, we did buy 2kg of dragon fruit to go with lunch. This 2kg cost is 15,000 Dong (just over 50p and I think we had 6).

Lunchtime was a mix of so many things plus fish fried in lemon grass, crab soup, burned rice. It was quite a feast.

We could see through the window a secondary school. They were celebrating teachers day with music, traditional clothes and a red carpet for the teachers. We could see some of the students wearing very flamboyant dresses which were quite spectacular.


A trip to the river was our plan for the afternoon. We followed the GPS along tiny little lanes for a while but then decided it was easier to follow the main roads. Near the river was some pretty exclusive gated housing areas, a huge swimming pool and lots of guards. We followed the river as far as we could but eventually our way was blocked and we headed home. The route home was far better than the main road!


The next part of our day was amazing. Our host invited her son for dinner. Except he was a food coneseiur and did the cooking! He cooked a tremendous meal of seafood and spices, followed by delicious cakes and fruit. We also added a vegetable soup to the mix but our dish came a very poor second.   

Dinner was followed by a relaxing walk in the park.

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