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Published: February 10th 2008
(Vin Long (An Binh) -> Ben Tre -> My Tho -> HCMC )
We woke up to the rooster... and... here's the best part... rolled over and went back to sleep!! 😊 Island life is wonderful! When we did get up we mosied over to see what was for breakfast. -Silly things like describing sweet/black coffee become fantastically animated when neither party knows what each other is talking about! After we got that sorted, our host recommended the noodles with baby octopus, and a beer for breakfast... (
WHAT!? 😱 ) umm... at 8am... umm... well, naaa! We asked if we could have fruit instead. A short while later, our host re-appeared in the garden, with a long pole for twisting the fruit off the trees! 😊 it was superb! We had a fruit similar to a grape crossed with a lichi, and jackfruit, which is like a massive grapefruit that you dip in spiced salt while you eat it. It was brilliant! 😊
The morning was very gentle. We took a gentle walk to explore the island a bit. It was absolutely stunning. There were small footpaths that connected all the small homes along the river. Every now
Escape from the madness
Hard to believe that just across the river was the chaotic town life that had been driving us mad. That's the contrast of the delta...and then we had to step aside for a motorbike (huh?!... yup... even on the remotest of remote islands!) or to let a couple of tall slender Vietnamese women in flowing white, traditional clothing cycle past. It was absolutely surreal!
When we got back we were served a noodle lunch, and all that was left was for us to relax in hammocks until our boat came to take us back to the mainland 😊 The whole stay here was stunning! The family was amazing, the island was more than unbelievably beautiful... it was the perfect escape from the chaos of the city!
We were really keen to make the trip to
Ben Tre by motorbike and, not surprisingly, our boatman had just the contacts! Every one here seems to have a contact for any thing you could possibly want! 😊
Our pair of drivers met up with us at the arranged venues, and this time, we were even given helmets to wear!! The drivers tucked our back packs between their chests and the handlebars and off we went!
The road to Ben Tre was stunning! Being on the back on the bike, driving through the smaller
The open road
Fresh air and palm trees between Vinh Long and Ben Tre rural roads is an unbelievable way to see the country! We drove through about 3 villages, each separated by bright green rice fields that were ringed with palm trees. It was a beautiful sunny day and cruising along the countryside with the cool wind in our faces was the best way we've found for travelling a country so far. On several occasions we were packed tightly onto a ferry along with a swarm of other motorbikes, to cross a river that had no bridge.
When we got into Ben Tre, it became pretty clear that our drivers had no clue where they were going, so we hired another set to take us to the ferry to My Tho😊 Ben Tre is a far less cluttered town, with wider streets, fewer power cables and not as many motorbikes fill the roads. Even our new drivers seemed to drive slower!
We were dropped off at the ferry. It's about 15min to get to the other side, and, if you're travelling on foot, it's absolutely free! Yay! When we got to the other side, we hired 2 cyclos (and made sure they knew exactly where we wanted to go and how
Across a bridge
One of countless small rivers we crossed on our journey much they'd charge!) to take us to the bus terminal. It was a great change of pace!
We bought tickets for the 15:10 public bus to HCMC, but only ended up leaving at about 15:45, after all the seats were loaded with people, chickens piled on laps and the isle packed with bags of potatoes 😊 Running on Vietnamese time! When we were eventually on our way, the bus driver kept stopping to pick up
more pedestrians on the side of the road! The bus trip was certainly something of an adventure on it's own. What with the diver hooting non-stop, the really loud Vietnamese pop music playing for the whole trip, and people talking so loudly into their cell phones you'd wonder why they even needed it... the person on the other end could probably hear them anyway!
It was about 3/4 of the way into the trip that we had minor heart failure... we saw 2 shops with 'Vinh Long' as their title! -where we'd spent the whole day travelling from! 😱 As we were discussing what our different options were... we could spend another night at a homestay, or try to find a late night
bus back (etc) the road disappeared into the biggest puddle I've ever seen! The whole area had obviously been flooded a few days before and the water still hadn't drained out yet! All the stores were blocked up with sandbags to try and keep the water out. People were cycling with water up to their axles... their shoes dipped into the water every downstroke! Much to our relief, we arrived at the terminal on the outskirts of HCMC a short while later 😱
As is the custom, we were mobbed by about 5 touts before we could even look up! They were all offering rides into town for about $10 for a taxi or about $8 for 2 bikes! We told them to forget it and we walked out the bus station, down the street about a block and hired 2 bikes for $3! 😊
What followed was the most terrifying ride of my life! Our drivers twisted, at full pace, in and out of imaginary gaps in the steady rush of traffic! I was absolutely convinced that if we didn't collide with another driver, either my bag or I would be flung off just from the sheer
Madness
Don't be fooled by the photo. It doesn't move slowly. momentum! I've never prayed so hard for our safety before!! 😊 Soon after we left the bus station, we realised that being separated before we reached our destination was inevitable. So, the next time we came within about a lanes width of each other, we started shouting across the madness of the other drivers where we would meet. And not a moment too soon! All off a sudden I felt like we were animated characters being carried down a river on a small wooden raft... and the current was getting stronger! Then, dead ahead was the waterfall! There was no escape! We were heading straight into a 3 laned (about 4 bikes to a lane), 4 way intersection with a giant circle in the middle... and no one was slowing down!! Aaaaahhh! DOESN'T ANYONE ELSE SEE IT??!! WE'RE HEADING FOR THE MIDDLE OF THE MONSTER! And in we went... at full pace! Some how my driver and I emerged unscathed on the other side... I could only hope the same for Darrell...
Eventually we arrived, with our bags and our lives all in one piece! We found Ocean Tours easily and got our battery charger back (we left it
in the Hanoi branch at the beginning of the trip, and they were super helpful and posted it down for us!). We found a down-in-the-alley hotel for about $5 for the night and headed into the town to explore!
HCMC is a crazy city! Everything is rushed and chaotic. Seeing the Cuu Chi tunnels was pretty high on our To Do list, and finding a tour for it was about as difficult as breathing! There're travel agencies all over the place 😊
Our search for food took us up and down many a bustling street, with all the restaurants either packed with tourists, right next to a construction site, or displaying too many pigs heads for one to maintain an appetite! We thought all was lost, until... like an oasis in the desert, a 'Doner Kebab' stall came into focus! Aaaahh (enter violin chorus synthesiser sound). It was perfect. We sat right there on the pavement eating our kebabs on baguettes, talking about how life could not get any better!
All tout-ed out, we sought refuge in an internet cafe to read emails before heading back to the hotel for a much needed good night's sleep.
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