Vegetable Tossing in the Mekong Delta

After a few days in Hanoi and Sigh Gone we were ready to head out to the Mekong Delta, a famous region outside of Saigon for floating markets and beautiful rice fields. 

We had.....a few....complications when first getting there. I'll take all the blame, but we went to this town Ben Tre, that was supposed to be really cool according to my LP (Lonely Planet), but....

There were a lot of tour buses? So there must have been something? There was supposed to be a cheap ferry to take you to islands, but it was nonexistent...But, we took a few pictures to prove we were there! Hahah. We soon moved on...oops.

Within two hours of our arrival in Ben Tre and discovering the dud, we soon painfully made our way back to the bus station with a 4 km walk in the pounding heat with our bags. Upon arriving at the Bus station, we only then learn that the bus we want next, is nonexistant, but to get on the back of motorbikes and they'll take us somewhere....

With a lot of hand motions and pointing to maps we reluctantly get on these guys bikes, I wasn't sure if they were taking us to a new bus station or if they were taking us all the way there, but it was our first experience on a xe om and it was awesome. Kelly and I had discovered the beauty and convenience of the xe om and from then on, we never walked anywhere over a few miles.

After arriving in our next town, Can Tho, we set up an early boat tour of the Delta. Here we are on the boat at 6:30 am.

All smiles!

Cool old bridge!

Sunrise, it's gorgeous.

Here we are at the floating market! The "famous" church is in the background. The market was...a bit different than we expected, but it was still beautiful.

Oh yeah, we went there. Beasts. 

Gorgeous. 

We ended up traveling to a few different towns and made our way to another bigger floating market.

Veggies!!

Empresses of Huế

Being bike addicts, Kelly and I woke up after our motorbike day and decided that after a hearty breakfast of eggs and baguettes (Kelly needed those eggs) we would rent bikes to ride and explore Hue. Although we had been in town for a day and 2 nights already, we hadn`t explored the town at all (minus searching for restaurants) So we headed off and ended up at the Palace. Where we went Royal!

Oh yes, we went there. 

Royal Kelly.

We paid 3 bucks to dress up in these and take pictures. We had to. We really did.

Here are more ruins to the palace.

We then biked to a sweet pagoda by the river.

Overall it was a lovely day exploring Hue and wandering around. 

Marble Cake

In between Hue and Hoi An Kelly and I jumped off our yellow little bus and ventured off into the Marble Mountains. Temples litter these four mountain tops that surround the Marble Village, that now imports their marble from China. 

We only hiked through one mountain, but it was gorgeous. 

There's the marble town and another one of the mountains off in the distance.

He looks so happy, right?

There were also these caves that were fun to explore. 

This particular cave served as a hospital during the American War. 

This is China Beach. Apparently it was a favorite R&R for American soldiers. (Also, the setting for some Vietnam related TV show)

Daibutsu! 

Oh, I also must add what BAMFs we were. We explored and hiked the whole mountain with our backpacking packs. Beasts.