Can Tho!

Here are some photos from our weekend in Can Tho!

Photo: Can Tho city! The biggest city in the Mekong Delta. Here there are mostly all moto's rather than cars. Everyone honks their horns every 5 seconds. Honking horns here is a way of saying, "Watch out, here I come!", "Hello!" or "Move it!" A little bit different than the US...

Photo: Out to dinner with the Vietnamese coaches! Both nights we went to a really great restaurant. The menu was huge and there were many other tourists there. It was right on the Mekong River.
Photo: This is Rose and I inside of a stuffed animal shop haha. This little hut was inside of the Super Market which is HUGE and has much more than just food. But also, appliances, clothing, electronics, book store, arcade, cafe's etc. Everything was really bright colored.
Photo: This is a typical dorm room at Can Tho University. TEN students live in this room!!! They are assigned to dorm rooms based on the provinces they are from. NO mattresses!? NO closets? This makes Cauthen and Woody look like palaces.

Hi! This weekend we went to Can Tho city! It was SO much fun but we are all exhausted. After being in a rural part of Vietnam all week I was so excited to go into a city. Can Tho is very active. People stay out late and get up early to go to work. I really liked the city. I was intrigued by everything--I literally felt like I was walking around everywhere just staring! There were many interesting things but also many completely bizarre things.

Friday after competition day ended we drove right to the city and dropped off the Vietnamese coaches at their dorm. After checking into our hotel, we quickly got ready and went to a really good restaurant on the Mekong River. Alongside the restaurant was a cool street market and many shops. This restaurant had an extensive menu and English translations which was really nice. We also saw a few other tourists there--I think they were European. The nightlife was a little crazy in Can Tho! American women must be very careful!! The boys on our trip are pretty much full time body guards!

On Saturday morning we woke up and walked to a restaurant called Espresso. Since Can Tho is a city and MUCH bigger than Hoa An we got to see many Vietnamese things that are somewhat westernized. We had eggs for breakfast!!! Such a treat. For the rest of the morning we walked around to street markets and went to the HUGE supermarkets. The street markets are individual vendors, ranging from lacquerware, clothing, sequin hair pieces, candy, other random food, fabric, watches etcc-- pretty much everything that you can think of. I loved seeing so many unique products. The supermarkets were filled with the more commercial things--even a few American products! Some of the funny things I saw were lotsss of different types of whitening creams. The women and Vietnam HATE the sun and wish to be whiter rather than tan. Whenever it is sunny at camp the Vietnamese coaches wear hats and try to cover themselves. I wish I could find a way to explain more of the crazy things but it is a little difficult. I'll list a few bizarre Super Market items: a section that was about 10 yards long with the words "FOOD FOR DIET PEOPLE" written above it (this doesnt make sense because a) hardly anyone can read that b) hardly anyone in Vietnam is overweight.) Boxes of chocolate with "surprise" fillings in them...hmm no thanks! Alot of T-shirts that were "Americanized" with expressions that were lost in translation for example we saw a t-shirt that said, "SORRY I'M LATE" another t-shirt that said "I ASIAM HAPPY." A notebook that said "I AM A LOVE HOLIC" on the front. The closest thing to McDonalds in Can Tho was a place Jobliee's--except instead of fries as a side, there was white rice. A painting station outside of the arcade. Those are just to name a few...

Many of the people stared at us and some even came up and signaled that they wanted to take a picture with me. The Vietnamese coaches from camp toured us around the city and would help translate for us when strangers wanted to talk to us. I bought some really cool fabric and jewelry from the market. I also tried a fried banana--you even eat the peel! It was actually really good! Later that day the girls went to a spa to get a massage! It was wonderfullllll. All of us were in the same room which was sort of funny--also funny that we couldnt communicate with any of the women at the spa. The boys went fishing instead of getting massages--massages for men in Vietnam have an added....bonus? That the American boys were not interested in. YIKES!!!!

On Saturday night we went to dinner at the same restaurant. It was great for a big group since we were joined by all of the Vietnamese coaches. After dinner we walked from the restaurant to a dock and went on a little boat cruise! It was so much fun even though it was kind of raining. The boat was similar to a yacht but I'm not really sure what it was?? Haha. The upper deck is where we sat at a big table and just talked. There were four levels--some had dancing, some kareoke, some people were eating dinner. It was kind of weird? But we had a great time.

Sunday morning we slept late and then walked around the city a little before getting lunch. Then we headed to Can Tho University where the coaches would give us a tour of their school! It was really interesting to see their dorms and all of their buildings. The agricultural center/area of the school is HUGE since that industry is so big in Vietnam. There was a whole building dedicated to the breeding and raising of fish!!

After spending time around Can Tho University we got back on the bus and headed back to Hoa An. Who would of thought that I was actually looking forward to sleeping in my mosquito bed net again?! Not meeee haha. Tonight we will plan our lessons/sports activities for the week and then off to bed! I'll upload more cool pictures from Can Tho soon!!

xoxo