Dan and I rose early to get a taste of My Tho’s local specialty breakfast soup, Hu Tieu. Its lighter and sweeter than pho, but has many of the same basic ingredients: beef pork, fresh herbs, bean sprouts and rice noodles. Along with a glass of strong iced coffee its a fine breakfast.

We then walked over to the Ben Tre ferry crossing and onto the boat. The crossing is free when you’re on foot! On the other side we got motos to take us into town, where we made it to a guesthouse and then walked out to find a driver for a boat tour of the canals around the province. Across most of the towns in the Mekong Delta the government has a monopoly on boat tours, so they cost quite a lot (up to $35 / person). In Ben Tre, however, the local drivers operate on their own and the prices are much more sane. We got on a boat and were taken on a nice 3-hour ride through some narrow canals and along a wide section of the Mekong.