Chau Doc to Can Tho

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Chau Doc to Can Tho

As Monk and Saavas were saying their goodbyes to Vang the previous evening, he insisted on taking them to the bus station the next morning and organising a ticket to Can Tho 'at local people prices'.

Monk had originally hoped that they could find a boat from Chau Doc to Can Tho so they could cruise the Mekong (or the Bassac) for this section of the trip. However, it seems that no public boats operate this section of the river any more - buses and motorbikes have put an end to most of the public river transport services. The only boats offering any kind of service are the up-market 2-5 day 'rice barge' cruises running into hundreds of dollars. So, the bus was the only option.

At 10:00 Vang and buddy arrived, managed to balance the bags on their bikes as off we set on another hair-raising ride to catch the bus.

Vang stopped at a shop where the nose of a minibus poked out from a building. Payment of 70000 dong each saw Monk and Saavas in posession of a ticket and they said their final goodbyes to Vang. From onboard the bus, they watched as a man strapped packages around his waist and legs - a suicide bomber wondered Monk with some concern. A Vietnamese lady on the bus explained in a mixture of English and French that the 'bombs' were in fact packets of cigarettes, smuggled over the border from Cambodia and now being onward smuggled to Can Tho and then probably Saigon. After re-arranging his clothing, the 'bomber' climbed on board the bus - in the driver's seat!

Before the bus left, the driver's 'assistant', an animal of a character, screeched like a monkey at Monk to get onboard. There were no words, just a screech, which Monk mimicked as he climbed on board, much to the displeasure of the animal. By the time the bus left, most seats were taken. The animal sat by the window in front for most of the 3-hour journey, smoking a cigarette, scanning each village as we passed, looking for yet more passengers. The open-windowed, 'air-conditioned' minibus was now heating up as the cool morning turned to midday heat. Monk asked the animal to close the window so that the air conditioning could work. The animal just glowered back. At one village, when Monk thought that no more passengers could possibly squeeze on board, another got in. The driver drove like a maniac.

The road from Chau Doc to Can Tho follows the river and canals for much of the way, however, it's mostly a continual ribbon of urban sprawl interspersed with sections of not very interesting countryside with a couple of large towns along the way.

On the road, the driver ignored a policeman waving at him to stop. Just before Chau Doc he was waved down again and this time stopped. The policemen performed a cursory inspection of the inside of the minibus, tapping panels, but found nothing. The driver and animal were at tthe side of the road being questioned by the police. In his mind Monk was shouting 'Check his legs, check his waist!', not really wanting them to do either in case we lost the driver into police custody in the middle of nowhere. What looked like ID cards were handed over - who knows what else was inside them. A few minutes later we were on the road again, the driver and animal laughing about their lucky, or paid for, escape.

After this not very pleasant minibus ride, Monk determined that, where possible, he'd opt for the big buses in future.

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