This afternoon we have gone ashore again to visit Sa Dec, we are visiting a temple

life on the river as we pass

houses on stilts so they do not get flooded out in the rainy season

the church we are visiting

young musicians learning..and entertaining the tourists!!

Love the colours inside this church

the all seeing eye

from the back to the alter

this is a caodai church.....combines all religions, so we added Geoffrey from Geelong ..what are the chances of a Geelong couple being on the tour with us!! He is also super interested in WW2 so bonded with hubby well!!

After the church we crossed the river and went to the market, some photos I have already shared, this lovely family were heading home after shopping.

chicken and fish I think!!

traditional wear

veges and fruit...aloe vera at the top

any kind of dried fish or sea creature you could think of!!

this is a busy place!!

Further up the road we went into the garden of a rich Chinese family and saw their collection of bonsai

and orchids

I so wanted to bring some of these home!!

love the urns too

this was out on the main road, love the little figures on the rocky base.

Off back to the boat now.

Bye.

Cai Be excursion (super photo heavy)

This morning we went from the boat to shore on smaller boats and had a visit to the local cathedral

these boats make up part of the floating market. At the top of the stick on the left hand side you can see what they had to sell...the eyes painted on the boats were to scare away the river monsters.

life on the river

the Cathedral we are going to visit

at the front gate

beautiful inside window

home for a colony of bats

tourists heading off to explore

these two cuties posed for a photo

the ice cream vendor rode past

we had to watch out for scooters and motor bikes , the zipped past pretty quickly.

We walked to a local area I am sure is set up for tourists

we passed these orchids on the way

huge fish in a not very big tank

coconut lollies being made

we had a taste of rice wine (kind of like a vodka shot) but then were given a taste of the rice wine with snakes in it...in the red jug is a small cobra...the venom is released into the wine and believed to have all kinds of healing qualities

and in here is a King Cobra in rice wine!!!! 😕😒

the guide thought this was extremely funny...thank goodness it was dead!!

many snakes in the rice wine

this lady was making rice paper for spring rolls

these fruit once ripened were used for food colouring

this guy is popping rice in black sand

these guys are mixing colouring from the fruit and sugar and the popped rice

pressing it into the mould

more pressing, then cutting then the ladies to the left bagged it up

our morning tea, jasmine tea and snacks.

sugared ginger slices, popped rice, sugared banana, popped rice with black sesame seeds and yellow things!!

passenger boats...heading back to the boat for lunch now.

Back soon. 

On and off the boat

We have now been cruising up the Mekong River for 2 days, we are being fed wonderful food and are being taken on excursions usually twice a day.

These photos are going to be out of order as I am having trouble up loading from the camera, but this was at the food market we visited yesterday.

Farmer seen from the river

Beautiful bonsai for sale, shame I can't bring one home!! 😁

Fish at the market

More fish, some are still alive.

Fancy some meat for dinner??

The internet is not cooperating now so will finish up here.