Feb 24th- our day on the mekong river

A trip to vietnam would not be complete without a day trip on the mekong river. Our boat's journey took 1 hour through the countryside. We were lucky to have our own private Luxurious boat( Cai Bai princess)- including two sun loungers.  It also included fresh local fruit including the ice apple (a sour fruit not to my taste).

Our first visit to the floating village was nice and interesting to see local scenery. But the next 2 hours of the same rice fields was a bit boring.

After our journey on the boat we finished close by to our lunch restaurant, Le Longanier. On the outside a charming country house however inside it was boiling hot with limited breeze.

To start we had a soup with corn- kind of bland and not cooling considering the restaurant felt like it was 50 degrees inside.

The next course was some delicious springrolls. These were different from any ones I have eaten in Toronto but the best part of the whole meal.

The next course was mekong river fish. The fish was served like peking duck- with vietnamese pancakes. It was an interesting dish to try but I don't think I would order it again. To be honest I am bit scared to eat river fish due to the chemicals.

The next dish was an okay stir fry- beef. I would rate this dish as ordinary.

To finish we had a light dessert- fruit and yogurt. It was a nice way to finish.

Overall, this lunch was just okay. It was one of our worst meals during the trip and if in a large city I would probably skip this one. However, it was a way to relax before our long drive back to the city.

On way back we stopped at the Chinese Temple- it was nice temple but similar to ones seen in China. Finally, back to our hotel to relax before my dinner at Xu Lounge (this was a restaurant I was looking forward to).

Dinner at Xu:

My cocktail to start- yummy and similar to a fruity caipirinha. A wonderful Caipirinha however not that unique.

Fried taro patties with a wonderful tamarind sauce. Very different from anything I have ever eaten but wonderful. I admit I may have loved the sauce just a bit more.

Soft Shell Crab- beautifully prepared with a cabbage and cauliflower puree. I loved this dish and wish I could find something similar here.

Finally a spicy beef from Australia- if any dish was just okay this was it. It was beautifully prepared and tasty but paled in comparison to the other dishes. However, I would still order this at home.

A wonderful meal- we sadly did not eat more due to our Intercontinental lounge full of yummy snacks and drinks.

To finish the night we walked around downtown Saigon at Night and even picked up some beautiful scarves from Khai Silk.

Saigon Opera House

On our way back to hotel by cab we had a different adventure then we expected. It started with us being safe and getting a cab from the Sheraton back to our hotel. The cab driver then tried to drop us off a the corner of our hotel to cheat us of more money. As he told my dad he had no change, he locked my mother and myself in the back of the cab. Then by screaming loudly we forced him to take us to the Intercontinental driveway where the bellboys noticed us trapped in the back and came to our rescue. Finally, he gave my dad change and drove off screaming into the distance. All we can say is how lucky we were all he wanted to do was cheat us a couple of dollars and nothing worse.