Phu Quoc to Ha Tien and Chau Doc

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Phu Quoc to Ha Tien and Chau Doc

On Sunday Nellie, Monk and Saavas said their goodbyes to Gerard and Mai and left the tranquility of Mai House on Phu Quoc to catch the 13:30 boat for Ha Tien on the mainland.

When buying the tickets, the agent said it would be the moden 'Superdong' hydrofoil. It turned out to be an old rust bucket called the Can Tho which looked like the rusted fuselage of a 747 minus its wings. The real 'Superdong' was leaving just as we turned up but it was going to Rach Gia instead - further south on the mainland. The Can Tho was jammed full of the usual crowd of fun-loving (read - raucous) Vietnamese holidaymakers. The 'in-flight movie' this time was a series of bizarre pop-videos, one where the singer's body spontaneously exploded leaving his arms, legs and head strewn all around. The body somehow managed to collect the other body parts one by one and stick them back together again, ending with the head, which miraculously opened its eyes, sinisterly smiled and continued singing along with the soundtrack. What the lyrics might have been Monk wouldn't dare to guess. Facing a bulkhead, with windows too high to properly see out, it was a boring, claustrophobic hour and a half to Ha Tien. Monk longed for the open-windowed, airy wooden boat he'd taken to Ha Tien a few days earlier that he'd slated so badly.

Since the Lonely Planet was written, the ferry dock in Ha Tien has moved and both of Monk's boats used a berth on the south side of the river facing the town centre on the opposite bank. It used to be on the north side in the centre of town so now you have to catch a taxi or xe om (motorbike taxi) into town.

Ha Tien town is a pleasant enough place to stay overnight. There are a number of hotels and Monk and Saavas had no problem finding one. Despite being a jumping off point for Phu Quoc, there are surprising few tourists around town. A bar just at the start of the street with the Xuan Thanh restaurant on the corner, where there is a small night market, is run by an Englishman married to a Vietnamese lady. He's a nice guy and is a good source of local info on buses, restaturants etc - all for the price of a beer.

Yet another early start saw Monk and Saavas cathing a cyclo (bicycle cab) out to the bus station which is 2km outside of town. The bus they intended to catch was full and the next was not for another 3 hours. After a bit of negotiation with a minibus driver they managed to neogtiate a price of $15 each to get to Chau Doc. This was probably several times the going rate but, being Vietnam bus novices, this didn't seem too much of a rip-off and it saved hanging around the bus station for 3 hours.

The drive to Chau Doc takes about 3 hours and follows the Vinh Te Canal most of the way. This makes for an interesting drive wathcing the activity on the canal. All along the route are rice fields and the local farmers use the road as a bed for spreading and drying their rice. They spread tarpaulins across half the road forcing the busy traffic into a head-on stand-off over who can get into the section before the other. Several times the minibus forced oncoming motorbikes into the bank of rice.

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