Susan's Homestay

Our next stop after Saigon was the Mekong Delta where we stayed at Susan's Homestay.  The countryside is green and lush thanks to it being the rainy season, and the roads were surprisingly smooth and seemed newly paved, even in the tiny town where we stayed.  As we were driving through the little villages, I noted that the local food joints were even cheaper than in Saigon - it was common to see com tam (broken rice with grilled pork) advertised for 15-20k VND (79 cents to $1.05).  

Susan's Homestay is located on her parents' beautiful little coconut farm.  She grew up there and lived in a straw hut on the property.  They replaced it with a new brick home, followed a few years later by the addition of 5 guest rooms for her homestay business (our gang stayed in 3 of those rooms).  Earlier this year she added a really nice infinity pool.  This is most definitely NOT common in the Vietnam countryside, but was very happily welcomed by the kids.

Susan welcomed us and we checked into our rooms.  The rooms each have air conditioning, mosquito nets, fans, a small fridge, and a private shower/bathroom.  It is common in Vietnam for the shower to be in the same room as the toilet... like with no partition between them... so the floor of the bathroom was constantly wet and toe curling.  Other than getting used to that, it was clean and comfortable enough!

After settling in we sat down for a home cooked lunch made with fresh ingredients from her garden - stir fried morning glory with garlic, loofah and shrimp soup, caramel pork, white rice, watermelon, rose apples, and iced tea.

We went on a bike tour after lunch and visited a rice paddy, pomelo farm (and devoured three excellent pomelos), a 300 year old Khmer temple, and stopped by a local market.

We had a fresh sugar cane and kumquat drink, picked up veggies to make dinner, and couldn't help but get some mangoes, rambutan, guava, custard apples, and longans.

When we arrived back at Susan's Homestay, we enjoyed fresh coconuts from their farm and then helped make dinner.  On the menu: spring rolls (made with taro, carrots, onions in a very crispy lacy rice/tapioca flour wrapper), banh khot (Vietnamese savory pancakes with various toppings like shrimp, pork, mung beans, carrots), lemongrass chicken (cooked in a clay pot over a fire with a lotus leaf), and white rice.  The best part was eating the spring rolls and banh khot wrapped inside a large variety of edible leaves, lettuce,  and herbs from her garden and dipped in nuoc cham (prepared fish sauce).  Delectable!