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Published: December 17th 2009
We left Can Tho on the 9am bus that the kind lady at the Hein Guesthouse booked for us. The most surprising thing about the Mekong for me was the amount of houses along the way between towns. The small map in the Lonely Planet Guidebook had the main towns marked out, sepereated by long winding roads. However, We did not see a single open space between Can Tho and Rach Gia. Rather, it was like travelling through a large suburban sprawl. The only reason we noticed we had arrived in Rach Gia was the signs!
I have to first, point out, at how annoyingly useless the maps in the guidebooks are! Our arrival was met with about 3 or 4 motorbike taxi's trying to take us to the ticket office for around 80,000 dong each. We figured that we may as well walk it, seeing as it was only supposed to be around 500 metres. This was slightly difficult seeing as our map said that the station was just out of town, so making use of the sun position we headed off. We headed to a cafe for a cold drink, and to hopefully lead the motorbike touts off
our trail (this didnt work as they just staked out on the corner watching us drink). I was hoping we could find ourselves a real taxi (due to our backpacks, I resuse to get on the back of a motorbike with my bag, I am scared I will overbalance them) but there just seemed to be none around. We finally found the river and headed towards the ocean from there, when we walked right into the Superdong ticket office. for 220,000 dong each we got our tickets to Phu Quoc, with the boat leaving in 25 minutes.
Phu Quoc, I must say, is just a fantastic spot. Admittedly it is crammed with hotels all along the Long Beach stretch, with more in development, but it is just a fantastic place to relax. We stayed in the Ã47 hotel, just behind the beachfont hotels, as recommended by our taxi driver who drove us across the island from the port. We figured that for $15, we could just walk the beach the following day and find a beachfront bungalow if it was not what we were after. Admittedly, the room was not one of the best we had stayed in. It
was clean and tidy, but the bathroom door did not close, leading to a frustrated ben when I threw all of his shampoo bottles and shower gels into the bin to give it a little more weight to hold the heavy door closed. Ben also happened to spot a mouse at one point, and the door had a little knack to get into, you had to pull it tight before you could turn the key to open. However, after a day here the hotel grew on us, largely because of the staff. Definately the friendliest we have come across, who speak relatively good english, happy to recommend the best spots to go, and of course, the guys up on the rooftop bar and cafe, who made us our regular morning and evening banana shakes as we watched the boats and sunsets out across the horizon. We even left our belongings behind the desk one morning so we could spend the day swimming on the beach. We came back to find that they were not behind the desk. Aparrently, it appeared that the young man that took our belongings was worried that they would not be that safe behind the desk
with the staff change (locked cupboard not a safe) so had taken them with him to his room! A little unorthodox, but his intentions were honest.
Our first day was rather laid back, and mostly consisted of us lazing around. It did, however, include a walk to the end of Long Beach (2km away) in which I got rather burnt on the walk back to the hotel (I have been sunscreening up!) The highlight of Phu Quoc for me, however, was the chance to jump on a motorcycle and head off to explore the island, 70% of which is national park. We did a loop of the south, the first half mostly consisting of dirt tracks, a good part of it right along the coastline which then winds itself through lush forests and through the occasional vietnamese village. We arrived at An Thoi, which surprised us with being such a small town. Previous travels had us expecting a larger village here. The locals at the end of town got a good laugh at my bike riding abilities. I managed to pick it up easily in the first 50 metres, but after a day of riding was still having difficulty
Ha Tien
Ducks for sale at the Ha Tien marketdoing turns from a standstill. I even stayed under the speed limit! I found that if I went in front of Ben, I would turn around and he would be way back down the road, so I soon realised that if I stayed behind Ben I didnt get carried away. Even when I rode right up next to him and revved it. Ah well. It was a pretty scary drive from An Thoi back to Duong Dong (the town next to our beach). You would be driving along a road with traffic going both ways, and the road only being a tad wider than a car. The basic rule is that if a vehicle is bigger than you, its your job to move out of the way. So if we saw a truck coming the other way, you go as close to the edge as possible, and hope your knee is not sticking out, as every driver here is a 'precision driver'.
After we had had a few days of beach relaxation we decided it was time to head off. We had decided to catch the Ferry to Ha Tien, and then on to Chau doc, Breaking up the
trip to Saigon a little. Ha Tien was a nice enough little town, there was a bit to see and do, including a visit to the monument dedicated to Mac Cuu, A chinese immigrant who founded Ha Tien. Chau Doc was next on the list, and here we found our cheapest accomodation yet! For $6US a night, we got ourselves our own room with ensuite. It had a lovely restaurant that came out over the river on stilts, providing a fantastic settting, even though the entire floor of the restaurant was lopsided and uneven, shaking whenever a large boat went past.
We arrived at Chau Doc expecting nothing more to do than eat on the river and stroll around the town markets, however, after dinner that night we arrived back at our hotel to the sounds of Vietnamese Karaoke. Next door had been set up for what we later found out to be a wedding, and within 5 minutes of us arriving the closest table noticed us, and invited us over. As soon as we got there, we were handed shot glasses with some type of rice wine, along with fruit and cooked clab claws. Was definately the highlight
of the trip, especially seeing ben bust some moves on the dance floor 😉
The next day we headed to Saigon and visited the Botanical Gardens which also had a zoo in it, as well as the Vietnamese history museum right next door. Heading to Hoi An tonight, catching a sleeper bus at 9pm from Saigon, arriving at Hoi An at around 6am.
Hope your all well at home, Annie 😊
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