Blogs from Chau Doc, An Giang, Mekong River Delta, Vietnam, Asia

After a good nights sleep woke to find the homestay was over the water due to the high tide. After a short boat ride back down the river, we started a long day in the saddle starting with a 40 km ride to lunch passing intense agricultural activities utilising the fertile rich soils of the Mekong delta. Lunch was a superb small village menu being the family home of our tour bike mechanics followed by another 40 km ride in quite warm conditions. We then had a short bus and ferry ride to Long Xuyen to end our 2 day Mekong experience before travelling to our last overnight stop in Vietnam at the Chau Pho Hotel. After dinner we had a rickshaw tour of the town to end our Vietnam visit.... read more

On Thursday it was time to say goodbye to Cambodia and Lou, for now. After our bus across the border experience we decided an alternative route might be better. We had really hoped to cruise along the Mekong river, but couldn't find anything within our end of holiday budget, so settled for a speed boat trip across the border and a bus back to hcmc (not so glamorous but still gave us some glimpses of river life). The boat trip was quite good fun, showing the vastness of the Mekong river and varied uses. We had to stop to repair a fuel line, but otherwise had an event free journey. The border crossing was much less stressful, in Cambodia we and the other dozen passengers hopped off to get our passports stamped while the remaining border ... read more

After our heavy negotiating and our too good to be true price we figured that today would be a bit of a let down. How wrong can two people be?!? We were picked up from our hotel in a brand new saloon car with a climate akin to Siberia in January and whisked into the Saigon rush hour. The ride was smooth and we had a little snooze as we drove through the suburbs and south towards the Mekong delta. We drove for around two hours before pulling up next to a bus full of tourists at a dock where various boats were moored. I don't mind telling you my heart sunk a little when we saw some of the same people we toured the cu chi tunnels with yesterday clamber off the bus. We waited ... read more

Geo: 10.71, 105.11DAY TWELVE (1/14/13) — Chau Doc Town At daybreak, we head to an authentic floating market as vendors and shoppers converge. We watch sellers promote their products and view hundreds of boats of all sizes jockey for position. Lots of buying, selling and bartering. We then head over to the fish farms, where we see farmer-fishermen making their own fish food and farming their fish. I am mindful of an Oscar Hammerstein lyric from "South Pacific". Nellie Forbush and the young lieutenant sing: How far away Philadelphia P.A. Princeton N.J. How far are they? From coconut palms and banyan trees and coral sands and Tonkinese How far are they? Life here is so very different than what we know. We are amazed and blessed to have the opportunity to experience it; and more than ... read more

Day 1 In Hanoi we had booked a three day/two night tour which would take us from Saigon to Phnom Penh. Collected at 8:00am by our tour leader and driver, we said goodbye to the city officially named Ho Chi Minh, but everyone still calls Saigon. After 10 minutes or so, we picked up three young German men who were joining us for part of the tour. We were driven to a place called My Tho where we were instructed to lather ourselves in insecticide before boarding a small boat. Reeking of Bushman's 80% DEET, we were ready to take on the mighty mosquitoes of the Mekong. At Xuan Dong Islet, we jumped on bicycles for a leisurely pedal around a village. At one stage we were held up by a group of men carrying a ... read more