Ho Chi Minh - Can Tho Tuesday Dec 9

 Tuesday Dec 9 2025 - Ho Chi Minh - Can Tho

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STEPS

WEATHER

TOUR DAY 14 all day with lunch

Pronounce Can Thu 

ITALICS TOUR DESCRIPTION

Following breakfast at the hotel, you will head south to visit the Cai Be floating market, cruising on the Mekong River among local barges full of fruits and vegetables. After that, your local guide will offer you the option to stop at local workshops where you will see how to make rice paper, coconut candy, and pop-rice, among other things. Later in the morning, a rowing boat will take you deeper into the countryside on smaller canals to enjoy the peacefulness of the Mekong Delta. You will also see traditional houses made of wood and palm tree leaves.

After a tasty lunch included at a local restaurant, you will have some time to walk around and enjoy some fresh fruits while listening to traditional music. Your guide will also offer you the option to enjoy a leisurely bike ride along village paths to see local farms and real life in the countryside and observe the ancestral ways to pick up fruits in the Mekong Delta. The cruise will end at Vinh Long City, where you will be transferred to Can Tho, in the heart of the Mekong Delta, for your overnight stay. (Breakfast-Lunch)

We went to breakfast at the Paragon at 6 as departure was 8AM.

It was a long day. 

The tour description said we would go to the Cai Be floating market, which was wrong. We had gone to Cai Be in 2015, but it wasn't a floating market.

We had a 2 hour bus ride, with 1 bathroom break. Sights leaving HCMC.

The State Bank of Vietnam is the central bank of Vietnam. It is organized as a ministry-level body under the Government of Vietnam and is the sole issuer of the national currency, the Vietnamese đồng. The building in Ho Chi Minh City was originally the Indochinese Bank Branch in Saigon from 1930 to 1957. The architecture blends Renaissance, Baroque, and Rococo styles.

The Hotel Majestic is a historic luxury hotel located in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Built by local Chinese businessman Hui Bon Hoa in 1925 in a French Colonial and classical French Riviera styles. Bon Hoa was one of the richest business men in southern Vietnam at the time. 

The original design of the hotel had three stories and 44 bedrooms. In 1948, Mathieu Franchini, head of the Indochina Tourism & Exhibition Department bought the ground and first floors of the hotel and rented 44 rooms in the building for the next 30 years. The hotel was expanded in 1965; two more stories were added based on the design of Vietnamese architect Ngo Viet Thu.

It is located at No.1 Đồng Khởi Street, formerly rue Catinat. After 1975, the hotel name was changed to Mekong Hotel (Khách Sạn Cửu Long),[3] and it became a government guest house. It was recently renamed again to the original name, the six storey building is now a 5 star hotel overlooking the Bạch Đằng Quay and Saigon River. It is owned by the state-owned Saigon Tourist.

The population is 14 million and there are 9 million scooters.

Doing the dishes.

Our bathroom stop. Vietnam's highway rest stops (Trạm dừng nghỉ) are developing, especially on new expressways like the North-South route, offering essentials like parking, restrooms, rest areas, food, gas, and repair services, with both full-service and temporary stops available.

We drove through the Mekong Delta while Jason explained about the rice grown there (3 seasons), the fruit and the fish that is the basis of their livelihood.

We then boarded a boat out onto the river where we boarded a rowing boat. You switch from larger tour boats to smaller, hand-rowed sampans to explore intimate canals and mangrove forests.

The experience is quiet, with the sound of the oar dipping in water, offering serene views of lush greenery and daily life along the banks.

It's a genuine glimpse into how locals have navigated the delta for generations, a cultural tradition.

I HATE getting on and off boats. These sampans were the worst! 

Our boat taking off!

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We were with the two Chatty Cathys  as we donned the obligatory hats, ours weren't as pretty as these.

After 30 minutes of agonizing torture, sitting on the bottom of the boat, we transferred to the bigger boat for about 40 minutes. We were served fresh fruit and a coconut.

Jack fruit, rose apple, mango and pomelo.

We then spend quite a bit of time seeing coconut candy being made, rice paper, puffed rice and rice wine.

Click here to see the process.

Nowadays, Mekong delta people create many kinds of coconut candy with different flavors attracting tourists. Those are coconut candy with cacao, coconut candy with durian, coconut candy stuffed with peanuts, … Each kind has a specific flavor, but also keeps the basic flavor. Many manufacturers process coconut candy under familiar trade-marks such as Thien Long (Thiên Long), Ngoc Huong (Ngọc Hương), which deliver coconut candy to domestic provinces and export them overseas. It can be said that coconut candy has a strong attachment to the cultural, eating, and traveling itinerary of Vietnam.

They also showed us the process of making rice wine that is extremely alcoholic and how they flavor it with snakes, birds, and more inside the bottles. Quite an experience to see (and taste)!

We tried snake, banana, gooseberry and ??

Mekong Delta snake wine tasting offers a potent, traditional Vietnamese experience, where snakes (often venomous ones like cobras) are steeped in rice wine for months, absorbing medicinal properties believed to boost health, vitality, and even male performance which lead to the usual jokes.

We also learned how rice paper (the essential wrap for Vietnamese spring rolls) is made, a process that is deeply rooted in tradition. 

Mekong Delta rice paper (Bánh Tráng) is a staple Vietnamese food, made from rice flour, water, tapioca, and salt, traditionally sun-dried into thin, edible sheets used for fresh summer rolls (gỏi cuốn) or fried rolls, with famous villages like Thuan Hung (Can Tho) and My Long (Ben Tre) known for centuries-old crafts, adding flavors like coconut milk, sesame, and turmeric for unique textures and tastes, essential to the region's cuisine.

They also showed us how to make “pop rice,” literally popping the rice in a pan and creating a delicious treat after removing the husks. It’s like eating rice krispies!

Finally we boated to the restaurant for lunch at 1:45. It was at a homestay, Ut Trinh.

 

Elephant ear fish, the server deboned it and wrapped it in rice paper and mint.

Then you could take a bike ride or relax. John chose the bike, which he said was old and creaky.

Mike came back after a couple of minutes. They were gone for about an hour. G took this video.

Back on the boat and the water level was too low to go see the pottery making, which didn't disappoint anyone. Instead we went by a tilapia fish farm.

We're back on the bus to Can Tho.

Cần Thơ is the fourth-largest city in Vietnam, and the largest city along the Mekong Delta region in Vietnam. It is noted for its floating markets, Bánh tráng-making village, and picturesque rural canals. It has a population of around 4,199,824 as of 2024, and is located on the south bank of the Hậu River, a distributary of the Mekong River.

TTC Hotel

Jason, getting our keys. It is too bad that we are only here for 1 night.

Lovely room.

Stir fry ostrich.

Only just realizing we sat down in the very place that Jason had just recommended to the group on WhatsApp! John PS joined us for dinner. I had fries (!) and john had spaghetti.

In our robes, on our balcony.

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