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Published: August 11th 2007
CHAU DOC - April 22 - 23
The boat from Phnom Penh to Chau Doc, Vietnam was fine (I think it was 7 hours). There was just 5 of us (2 german chicks, 1 american, and 1 canadian from B.C.). Crossing the border was easy peesy. Well actually maybe the ride wasn't all that fine because my stomach took a turn for the worst. And you know it's probably because I was telling Gill how "good" my stomach has been so far on my travels and I didn't knock on any wood😞 The night before I ate a food stall, a new one that had nobody eating at it, mind you it was still early for supper. But I don't think it was the noodles and veggies because I would have felt bad that night but I didn't UNTIL I had a pineapple pancake like at midnight at the guesthouse. My stomach was weird after that but it could have been because I ate too late? Who the frig knows but the next morning I felt something wasn't too right. It didn't actually come into full affect until we got to the hotel......thank god!! First time my stomach was nice
Along the Mekong River
to me and waited. More on my stomach issues later.......So anyways. I was shocked at how lively and nice Chau Doc was for a supposedly small border town (pop. 100 000). I was thinking Vietnam would be the same as Cambodia with dusty, rundown looking towns. There was even a stop light and decent paved roads!! We stayed at some pretty posh hotel for $6/night (Canadian gal, Gill and I shared) with tv, hot water, fridge, and balcony. We had dinner at this tasty little restaurant by the market where I just got fried rice with vegetables and chicken plus tra da (ice tea). Man I was still craving some sort of cake and got this kind of rice cake thingy dessert. Mm good. Chatted for a long time on the balcony with the American. After he left.....stomach bad. I actually slept in for once, 10:30am! Ya! Didn't do much except walk around the town, chat it up with a Cambodian who works at a tour company and later tried to sell us some crappy tour package to Siagon ($15 one day, $23 two days). I was afraid to eat but I thought something in my
stomach is better than
Friendly neighbor
nothing. Gill and I took a cyclo to Sam Mountain to see the sunset. The view was beautiful, looking out over the rice paddies. It's just like at the prairies back home.......endless farmland. On the way back we stopped at some famous temple that people from all over S.E. Asia flock too (and I can't remember it's name). We bought some incense, said a couple of prays then headed for some dins. Our cyclo driver was pretty cool too, he took us to some restaurant where they serve buffalo hotpots. The American ended up meeting up with us so the 3 of us got 2 hotpots, one fish and one buffalo. I wasn't too impressed with them but then again maybe it was because of my freggin' stomach. Well, lets just say that what went in, came out with great force. **WARNING** If you find talking about bodily functions offensive or disgusting then don't read next sentence.** As soon as I squated over the squat toilet, uhm ya.....explosive.....pissed out of my ass real good! I did feel better for afterwards but that didn't last long. I was hoping to head back to the hotel
Cool house
Very long and narrow housesbut was sad to see that
Cool house
Very long and narrow housesbanana rice wine was being distributed around our table. They tried to make me drink it but I wasn't having any of that. Sheat!
Oh ya I forgot to mention that I love this country so far. As soon as I stepped off the boat it just felt so good to be here and the vietnamese people are so friendly. Same same but different from Cambodians in that it's not just the kids that smile, wave, and say "hello", but the adults too!! It's great. Very friendly people!! Love it!
CAN THO - April 24 - 25
Next morning bought a bus ticket to Can Tho, the largest city in the Mekong Delta. Again I was surprised at the size of the town, nice buildings, deparment stores, clothing shops everywhere.....not a dump. The American followed as well and he was starting to get on my nerves from the previous day. Typical American attitude (sorry to my american friends) and total disregard of other cultures "I can do anything I want because I'm American" plus for a 40-year old he was pretty immature. Example of this
disregard and disrespect I speak of, I went to photocopy some papers
Rice paddy
and the shops here (same same in Cambodia) basically the living rooms of peoples homes so at this photocopy place they had stools close to the door where customers could sit then their living space was obvious with their couch and tv facing away from door. So this dude just walks right in, shoes on, and sits on their couch with legs over the armrest!! The owner looked at him and Gill and I both looked at each other, and I told him "ah that is their personal living space. There are stools here." And he said "if they have a problem with it they can tell me to move." Holy crapper that was just the beginning. So ya wasn't too happy that he also was coming to Can Tho on same bus and stayed at same guesthouse. Oh well, it worked out for the best since it was cheaper to do the boat tour of the floating markets and canals with 2 people. Ate lunch once in town....stomach seemed fine. I went to the Can Tho museum which included the Ho Chi Minh exhibits.....but hard
to follow since no english translations of exhibits but I kinda got the gist
Sunset on Sam Mountain
of it all. It was free so couldn't complain. Had dinner and then stomach turned on me again. I TOTALLY vegged in my room that night watching chinese music videos on MTVasia! Oh ya felt good and got me excited for my China travels😊 Woke up early to sunrise Mekong River tour. Me no eat (you know why). The first floating market we visited was Cai Rang which is the largest one in the Mekong Delta. It was pretty neat, so many boats, large and small with their produce displayed on long sticks so you know what they sell. Boats loaded up with several different types of food or just one kind. Love the pineapple boats or watermelon. So many different fruits and vegetables I've never seen before too. Our driver took to a place where they make rice paper and noodles. Pound the rice into liquid then pour onto hot burner for short period then roll off and onto bamboo cooling shelf thing (how they get those imprints on rice paper). Whole bunch of fruit trees around the place and our
guide took us around, telling us name of each fruit in vietanese. All I need to know is
View from Sam Mountain
what mango (sounds like "soy"), banana ("choui"), and pineapple ("khom") are. Back on the boat we headed for the other floating market, Phong Dien, which is less crowded. We stopped and sat on a pineapple boat and ate some pineapple and watermelon, each 5000d ($0.31usd) (mind you smaller than the ones we get at home). Mmmmmmmmmm so good and cheap. We took the canals back although the water level was pretty low and the small propeller kept getting garbage and banana leaves caught around it. Back at the guesthouse I had time to checkout and catch an afternoon bus to Vinh Long.
VINH LONG - April 25- 26
The American didn't want to be rushed so he took the next minibus, an hour later. Fine by me! Ran into the Tom, the Brit I travelled with from Sen Monorom. He was coming as I was leaving (also saw him in Chau Doc). Was going to a tour office in VL because talked to lady on phone about doing a homestay on the island and touring a
Me, cyclo driver, and Gill
I totally forget his name but he was super cool. coconut candy factory. Well she said it was $15 but of course when I got there, it was $20 because she thought
Me, cyclo driver, and Gill
I totally forget his name but he was super cool.there was 2 people (thought American dude was coming). I walked around to see if there was anything else cheaper and ended chatting it up with this dude at another tour company. He was very cool cause he knew his company's tour was very expensive ($46usd) but he told me how to do it independently. I was probably there for more than an hour just talking with him all the while trying to make a freggin' decision as what to do: 1) do independent, somewhat cheaper but may be harder, or 2) do with tour, easy but a tour which I hate. I ended up doing it on my own!! YAY me! Hehehehe. The ferry was packed with kids on their bikes going home from school. I wish I took a picture of the girls riding their bikes because it was totally what you would see in the movies, girls in their long white dress/pant uniform riding their bikes. Love it. The homestay was
with a family run guesthouse. They were a nice family and the place was super nice. Reminded me of the Nature Lodge in Mondulkiri province in that it was quiet, surrounded by trees (orchards this time),
Ho Chi Minh statue, Cantho city
and rooms made of bamboo (not wood). I was pissed at myself for taking such a long ass time deciding on tour or no tour cause I wasted precious bicycle time exploring the island. I only got an hour or so before the sun set. Sheat....I hadn't ridden a bike in a very long time and I was a little rusty. I felt pretty gay because I was damn wobbly and when I would here motos approach I would stop cause I was afraid that I would turn into them when they zoomed past. That was the most physical exercise I have done in a very long time and I was surprised that my legs weren't hurting. Dinner consisted a nice piece of fish, rice, and morningglory (i think), a huge ass BBQd shrimp (which I didn't eat cause it was cold in the middle....too bad cause it looked and smelled good), beef soup (remember i'm a vegetarian😊),
and for dessert, pomelo (very tasty, sweeter than ones at home). I was just chillaxin' when one of the girls that worked there came over and started helping me with my vietnamese. The son of the father who runs the place soon
Now that's protection!
joined us. It was pretty wicked except sometimes he would kinda creep me out when he would talk. Funny creep me out....would say many times, "no expensive. cheap" but in this voice which obviously I can only hear. I mentioned how I love Longan fruit and he brought some out for me then he totally brought something else out..............10 day old chick for me to eat. As soon as I saw the egg, I knew what it was.....sheat! Cracked it open like a hardboiled egg and the first thing I saw were viens. The girl scooped some onto the spoon and handed it to me. It didn't look so bad cause I could see some yellow yolk.....something familiar. After smelling it, and it smelled okay, and just starring at it for like 5 mins, I put it in my mouth, expecting the worst but was pleasantly surprised at how much it just tasted like a
hardboiled egg. So I dug into the next piece but my hopes were dashed when I pulled the spoon out and out came with it was what I think would have been the neck and beak of the bird, all flopping around and shit. This
Pic above the toilet in my room...weird but funny.
I think took 10 mins for me to work up the nerve to eat it with peer pressure from the two vietnamese next to me, saying how this is a delicacy. As I was heading to bed I stubbed my big toe real good! I felt the blood flowing out and pooling in my flip flop. Took the bike out the next morning and was much more comfortable and stable. I was pretty much the only foreigner on the island. I was pretty popular at the market. I put to use my vietnamese lesson from the night before and bought a watermelon. Everyone was surprised when I busted out the vietnamese, although probably poorly spoken. It was fun and I think the flock of ladies around me found it entertaining too. They always want to know how old you are. It's basically like this, either "Hello!
What's your name? Where you from?" or "Hello! How are you?" or "Hello! How old are you?" Ha funny. I rested at a cafe sipping my tra da (tea with ice) and eating my watermelon when some dude came and sat next to me. He pointed at my lizard tattoo (or gecko....whatever) and I
Sunrise on Can Tho River
said "tongue lang". Again he had a look of surprise and then laughed, followed by more laughter from the some ladies in the cafe. Then they started speaking vietnamese to me and I was like "ah me no understand." Boh well. I packed up my shit and my moto driver from the previous day took me to the ferry so I can could go visit the coconut candy factory. I took a moto to the boat area and according to the awesome tour guy that gave me advice on doing this indenpendently said I should pay no more than 30,000d to take taken around floating market and dropped at candy factory. Well this was totally not going to happen. I didn't care about the market but really wanted to see the coconut candy factory cause I love coconut anything. They came
down in price but not for what I wanted. I busted out with more vietnamese "Mac wai" (too expensive) and "bot di" (cheaper) but it didn't impress the boat dude too much. Well I was a little disappointed that I didn't get my free samples but whatever, time to go to Saigon. I already paid the moto guy 10,000d
Sunrise on Can Tho river
from ferry to boat and he wanted another 20,000d to national hwy 1 where I was going to catch the bus that apparently stops on the side of the hwy to pick up people. Again, I was told only to pay 20,000d total and thats what I did. Of course he waited for the bus because he got a commission. I didn't bargain the bus since they quoted the price around what the tour guy said.
The Mekong Delta, not what I really expected, more developed than I thought, not enough rice paddies but I did love it. A good introduction to Vietnam and the people, not like my border crossing into Cambodia.
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Jaime
non-member comment
Tour of Duty?
So I am a little disappointed you haven't seen anyone from the show! lol looks awesome there!!!! I like the peek-a-boo picture!!