Advertisement
Published: September 27th 2009
Edit Blog Post
My Tho
We had a bit of a stressful journey from Saigon to My Tho - being overcharged, and refused to be let of the bus - lesson learnt - even if it is pouring down with rain and thundering (which it was) and you are being ushered into a bus…check the price first! Agro over - the bus did drop us in My Tho and thankfully we had left the rain and thunderstorm (and rude bus drivers) in Saigon!
We walked a long way towards the centre of My Tho, and after a while found a hotel with a great view from the top floor. We could see out across the waters of the Mekong delta, with all the boats coming and going, and the houses with the Mekong as their back garden.
We had a lovely street dinner and it was a real reminder of how much I rely on others speaking English. We were using (fake) sign language everywhere and trying to communicate! Everyone about town loved shouting the one word they knew though, Hello! Hello! Hello! Everywhere we went, it was lovely, and we felt a bit like small town celebrities saying hello and
waving at the majority of the My Tho population! We went down some quiet side streets, and even down there everyone was so friendly and all the children were excited to see us, there was a real community feel. We stopped for an orange juice with lots of intrigued glares from onlookers! The evening ended with a café, sitting watching the streets and the life lived on them.
Ben and I did a fantastic morning tour of My Tho in a cyclo each. We had two fantastic drivers, who were fascinating to talk to, with a lot of knowledge about Vietnam and the local area. They took us to the market, to a Caodai church (an interesting religion that is a mix of buddhism, catholicism and taoism), a family run business tha tmade a popular snack, a house making steamed rice parcels, and a rice noodle production line. It was great because it was all in the countryside, and not things we would have seen had we been wandering ourselves. They were able to point out the local fruits and plants, and gave us lots to try. We stopped for coffee along the way, and the guide revealed his
fascinating history to us, having grown up during French Vietnam, and then his role during the war, and after the war. They were both such lovely guides with invaluable knowledge, and we had a great morning with them before they helped us get a bus across to Ben Tre, another area on the Mekong delta.
Ben Tre
Ben Tre was a very quiet town, and not very touristy (people go to My Tho on a day trip from Saigon). We therefore spent a while finding accommodation, but once that was sorted we went out exploring. Once again we were local celebrities, possbibly even more so….the number of “hello”’s doubled! It was lovely to see the kids so excited to speak English to an English person! There was one boy who said hello on his way home from school with his Mum driving the motorbike - when he said hello and I asked him how he was, his Mum looked so delighted when her son could answer me, and even more so when he translated to her that I was an English teacher - it was lovely! He made his Mum proud!
We wandered through the small streets
once again and met a Vietnamese guy who now lives in Miami and was over to visit his family. Once we got chatting, he suggested going for a drink with his cousin as well, and they treated us to a coffee in a lovely rooftop café that again, we would otherwise have not known about. Once again, they were delightful people and full of helpful advice. I have a fully restored faith in the kindness of the Vietnamese people after the mishap of the Saigon-My Tho bus ride! The Mekong delta just seems to be full of friendly, happy Vietnamese people!
Next stop...down to Can Tho...the heart of the Mekong apparently!
J x
Advertisement
Tot: 0.064s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 14; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0241s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb