After doing two full days of trips, we wanted a chilled day... and so did the wallet. We booked another 2 nights in the hostel and booked the train for the next destination. We walked around and explored some more of the city and in the evening we went to Ben Thanh night market. We'd been warned that this one was predominantly aimed at tourists so to be aware of things being way overpriced. It was pretty much as expected, a lot of stalls selling the exact same souvenirs and endless fake designer handbags and trainers. We always knew that locals would be pushy when selling things on the streets and with the low incomes they get its understandable but we didn't expect it no where near as much as they actually were. The first evening we sat out having dinner at a restaurant and we were constantly having sunglasses and fans and jewellery pushed in our faces as we ate. Even when we said no and carried on talking between ourselves, they stay stood beside us. We actually thought at the market it might not be as bad, but how we were wrong. I asked how much a bag was at one point and it was the biggest mistake ever. She started by saying that she'd give it me for x amount then when I said ok I'll have a look around she started insisting I tell her how much I wanted it for. Then when I told her no thank you she became even more persistent and telling me it was bad luck for me to ask without buying and pushing the calculator in my hands to put an amount in for what I wanted it for. Sean quickly put in a firm no and we left but it's situations like that put us completely even wanting to look in some of the shops and stalls. The annoying bit is, Sean and I are both suckers for designer things and we'd happily get a pair of knock off Ray-Bans to wear if they weren't so pushy.
Today we have been on another trip, this time to the Mekong Delta. It took 3 hours on the bus, then we got off and had a short boat ride to where we visited a rice workshop. There we saw how they make rice paper, rice wine and puffed rice snacks, as well as coconut sweets and the coconut oil. Alex couldn't resist in buying more sweets, she still has her sweet tooth out here. We then got back on the boat and went further down the river to where we transferred into smaller rowing boats to travel down the narrow peaceful canals. From here we stopped to have lunch and then rode on some old rusty bicycles back to the boat.
We got back and got our stuff together, ready for the 8am train to Nha Trang the next morning.
The morning didn't exactly go to plan. If we had skipped breakfast and got a taxi we still could have made the train but we were trying to save money so it was a half an hour walk and boiling hot so we decided to take our time, accept that we missed it and headed to the bakery for breakfast :) Alex has been obsessed with the place since we found it and so we've literally been almost every day! She loves her pastries haha.
We waited about an hour and a half for the next train which we didn't really mind... Until we got on the train and were delayed by at least another hour because of flooding on the tracks. This, along with the fact that we had to get a bus part of the journey due to part of the tracks being fixed meant we didn't arrive in Nha Trang till half 9 that night. It had been a very, very, long day.
On the upside, we found our £5 a night hotel and it's one of the nicest we've stayed in! LOVE it here already! Haha
:)
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