Can Tho.

Ok so I'm jumping a little bit back in time, to tell you about the night we spent in Can Tho before we went to Phu Quoc Island. After an amazing day of touring the Mekong Delta; drinking tea, eating local fruits and seeing how they make coconut candy and rice wine (an interesting combination) we pulled into the riverside town of Can Tho. The bus ride hadn't been bad, but we were ready to get off asap when we saw ourselves stopping outside an amazing hotel in the main street. As we pulled up, Claire and I squealed with delight, hypnotised by the glow of the neon signs reading "jacuzzi"and "sauna." The reality soon set in, however, as we realised that we were dropping off two people from the group who could obviously afford to pay a little more, and thought themselves to be above the "simple accommodation"offered on the brochure. We were most certainly put back in our place as we turned the corner and made our way, on foot, through the flood waters in the street beside the jacuzzi hotel. Damn. Haha. We didn't let it get us down though, because we thought we would freshen up and treat ourselves to a nice dinner. Armed with a fistful of cash and some clean clothes, we ventured out into the streets of Can Tho. The streets themselves left a bit to be desired, but the riverside area was just beautiful! Parks and walkways stretch along the bank, which is dotted with little benches and statues, as well as street vendors and restaurants. We walked for a little while, but then got this uneasy feeling that people were staring at us. Little eyes followed us everywhere, people on bikes were craning their necks to look back at us over their shoulders, groups of girls looked at us, then talked to each other and all stared again. We started freaking out. First I thought that maybe I had a piece of toilet paper hanging off my pants or something, then we started thinking that maybe there is some secret way to wear your scarf that means you're a prostitute, and we had somehow accidentally stumbled upon it. We decided to get off the street, and so we ducked into the first little restaurant we came across. From the minute we walked in we were treated like queens, it was incredible. We both had sauteed vegies with lemongrass and chilli. Absolutely fantastic! We paid for it, and thought we would retreat back to the hostel, considering how uncomfortable we felt, and thinking that maybe we were offending people somehow. The girl out the front was staring at us but trying not to make it obvious. Sweet. We went to leave, and said thank you to her as we passed, at which point she started absolutely gushing over our "beautiful skin"and my blonde hair. Who would have thought that being pasty as would bring such compliments. We asked her if we were doing anything wrong, or dressing strangely, but she just said that we were beautiful and had lovely *pale* skin. Very flattered (in a weird way) we left the restaurant with a little spring in our step. You might say the compliments went straight to our heads, and we decided to wander up the river a little more seeing as we were 90% sure that we weren't advertising sexual favours. A group of 5 people-4 girls, one boy- approached us shyly about 100m on, and asked if they could talk with us to improve their english conversation. They were adorable! Especially the boy, who was the vietnamese version of Carson from Queer eye. Haha. They were pretty great at English, and we sat with them for a while just chatting about life and school in vietnam. It's always a tad awkward, but they were the same age as us, so we had heaps to chat about. They bought us each these gorgeous little roses that a lady was making from ribbon on the street. They also got us each a bird that she had made from this ribbon. We were so flattered! They thanked us for talking to them and we wished them luck in their studies. We were so happy to have met such great people, and felt really lucky to have had that chance to talk to people our own age. Then these four little girls came running over to us, no doubt they had seen the roses and birds, which we gave to each of them. Their little gap toothed grins were just priceless. We took a photo of them with their gifts, and I'm smiling now just remembering the way they skipped and jumped back to their parents. It was such a good feeling to see them so happy and amused with such trivial little things. Compliments, lovely people and cute kids. Needless to say, we loved Can Tho!