Can Tho

Vietnam’s largest Mekong Delta town, Can Tho is SO Vietnam. Taking a boat ride down the brown river under a canopy of banana tree leaves perfectly framing thatched huts, I felt like I’d stepped into an Epcot Center ride or an American war movie. Either an adorable singing character had to be around the next turn, or Charlie would be waiting to blow my face off.

Hanoi is very much a 21st century city, and the northern landscape has always belonged more to the people than to Vietnam’s many waves of invaders, but in the south I found the land that everyone from Catherine Deneuve to Forest Gump has feared and romanticized.

The boat ride took us to a floating bulk market, where barges full of watermelons, pumpkins, jicama and crabs sell to smaller boats, who then sell the produce at land markets. Each boat advertises what it’s selling by hoisting a few pieces up a pole, so if you’re in the market for cucumbers, you can just look for a boat with cucumber flags.



We bought pineapple still on the stalk and ate it like a pineapple popsicle while we cruised by every kind of fruit that we eat in Hanoi and more all growing in their natural habitats. Then we stopped in this man’s “garden” (read: restaurant for tourists) where we got to play with snakes and eat said fruit. Then we napped.



The next day we took advantage of Jenn’s being there before us to meet up with a friend she’d made in town and have her mother teach us to make delicious banh xeo. It’s a coconut-batter crepe filled with pork, shrimp and veggies, then wrapped in herbs and dipped in sweet fish sauce. Wrapping and dipping are more or less considered the pinnacle of eating experiences in Vietnam, and for good reason. They’re fun to do and add a nice mix of flavors.

We then took a three-hour post-feast nap in the house of this girl we’d just met – also a very Vietnam thing to do. On the walk home, we stopped into a pagoda that serves the big Khmer population in town. We ended up chatting with a young monk for about an hour (because our Vietnamese is so good!) and he must have liked the company because he took it upon himself to make us each a smoothie. They were of unidentifiable flavor, but we think they were mostly sweetened condensed milk, with a hint of avocado. Delicious.

The last morning was for biking around the small towns set around the canals off the main river. I don’t think many tourists do that because it requires biking down a highway a bit to get there, and several schoolchildren actually screamed when they saw us. I blame my 6-foot friend Allison. The towns were very quaint, though, and serve a mean fresh coconut juice over ice.

Back in town, we went for more smoothies to try every new fruit that doesn’t make it all the way to Hanoi. And we napped. Life in the south is good.