One of the Best Decisions We Ever Made

17 ratings
17 January 2012

Hotel or homestay? Experience the difference when T+E’s Chefs Run Wild heads to Can Tho, Vietnam.

Story by: 

Lyndon Wiebe

Follow: 
Tags

With Chad still stuck in Cambodia waiting for a new passport, Clayton and I headed to the Mekong Delta in Vietnman. The Mekong Delta covers most of Southwestern Vietnam and is extremely spread out. We didn’t have a clue where we wanted to go, or even what we wanted to see. We decided to stray from our normal travels and do something different; we signed up for a package tour! It would take us from Chao Doc all the way to Saigon, over a three-day period. It turned out to be one of the best decisions we made.

The highlight for us both was definitely the homestay in the city of Can Tho. Everyone else on our tour chose a hotel and they definitely missed out. Our host and his family were some of the nicest people we met, and the food they prepared was some of the best we had on the entire trip.

Player for Blog with bigger dimensions. Share functions off, ads on.


After somewhat of a long morning and a few breakdowns, we arrived and decided to take a much needed nap. After our little kip, we awoke to one of the best spreads we ever tried. It included caramelized catfish with fish sauce, fish head soup with spinach, snakehead stewed with tomatoes and cilantro among other things. After lunch we went and played with one of their sons. He took us on a tour of the surrounding rice fields, showed us how to jump over a fire and how to get stuck in a tree.

Then, to cool down he made us go swimming in the Mekong. We were hesitant but finally gave in. It was nice to cool down, but the water felt so gross. I remembered thinking that it would not matter how long I showered for, I would never feel clean again. After showering – with lots and lots of soap – some of the other family there taught us how to fish from the pond with a net on a stick. We tried for over 45 minutes and quickly learned how hard it truly is. Once they caught a few fish, they showed us how to kill and clean them. Clayton and I then spent the next several hours helping the family prepare dinner.

Eventually, though, another tour group arrived and rained on our parade. We had the family to ourselves all day and didn’t want to share them with anyone. They were ours!

The homestay offers an original, entertaining educational experience you just can’t get in a hotel. It offered us an insight into how a local family lives, what they do for fun, what they eat, and who they are. Most importantly though, it made us feel right at home.

CATCH CHEFS RUN WILD EVERY TUESDAY NIGHT AT 8 PM ET/PT ONLY ON T+E!

Lyndon Wiebe

Lyndon Wiebe was born and bred in Winnipeg before moving to Calgary in 1994. It was in Calgary where he discovered his passion for cooking and food. After graduating high school Lyndon took his $50 VW Rabbit and drove across Canada on a trip that was supposed to last three weeks. Eight months later he finally returned with another passion; travel. He then graduated the Culinary Arts program at S.A.I.T. in Calgary and decided to combine the two things he loved most. After nearly a year of cooking and traveling in Australia, Lyndon took his first trip to Asia. He then spent three years living in Scotland and exploring Europe. In 2005 Lyndon came home to Canada. A year and a half later he reunited with Clayton and Chad in New Zealand for a year, then headed back to Australia before all three chefs embarked on the trip of a lifetime. In documenting their six months of travel across Southeast Asia on a budget of just $30 a day, they created the adrenaline-fuelled culinary and cultural travelogue Chefs Run Wild.