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Published: April 24th 2009
Well our time in Cambodia was sadly up but we were certainly excited about the next leg of the adventure: Vietnam. We bought our tickets for the 12pm fast boat from Phnom Penh to Chau Doc, but with the help of the ticket guy we waited around for a mysterious “1pm” boat that wasn’t listed (the 12pm one was packed and quite small). Turns out this is the boat coming from Chau Doc and they were returning there the same day…so instead of being jammed into a four hour ride in a small boat we ended up being the only ones on a boat twice the size…score!
Trip was cool and relaxing, great cruise down the Mekong. Border crossings were smooth and painless, and after four hours we pulled into Chau Doc. Due to the time of day we had decided we would spend the night here and then head off to Can Tho in the morning, so we hopped on some cyclos in search of accommodations….
Not much to report here; basically found a room, changed some currency, organized a bus to Can Tho the following day, wandered around town and settled into a Lonely Planet recommended restaurant
Purty flower...
Maybe a Lotus? Any help identifying is welcome...for some dinner (with arguably the best Spring Rolls of the trip. Finding the best rolls soon took on a competitive slant; I think the best ones at the end of the trip were in Halong Bay, Karen voted for these however, a very close second for me). Anyway, finished up dinner and as we strolled away from the restaurant we quickly realized that the entire town had shut down! Going from bustling madness to nothing but crickets certainly caught us off guard, so after wandering around for a bit we grabbed a cyclo and headed for the ritziest hotel in town to check out the lounge… The place was pretty much in darkness, save some candles, so I thought they were having a power outage or something…turns out it was Earth Hour and they had turned off all the lights for the hour…totally forgot about that!
Next day we got up and jumped on the back of a couple of scooters to check out Sam Mountain before heading out to Can Tho, again not much to report here…most of the locals in town seemed to be at the top of the hill, but the vistas were quite nice
(you could see Cambodia from the top). After hanging out for half an hour and winning a can of something called “Bird’s Nest White Fungus” at a carnival type shooting game (turns out it’s an “energy” drink made of, well, white fungus…yum! No, didn’t try it…haha…), we headed back down the mountain and hopped our bus to Can Tho.
We had sadly only budgeted two days in the Mekong Delta, so we made Can Tho our launch point to visit the floating markets and rice paddies. The hotel owner set us up with a tour the following day, and while I’m sure we could have found it cheaper if we had done our own legwork it just seemed way more convenient to pay the extra and be done with it… Not really a whole lot going on in Can Tho either; we just wandered around town, stopping for a pint now and then, followed by dinner and bed (our tour started at 8am the next day).
The floating markets were big on our must-see list and we were certainly not disappointed. Our guide showed up at the arranged time the next morning, and after leading us down to
the river and her boat we were off for our six hour tour of the markets and canals. We had of course woken up too late to do anything about breakfast, and that meant Karen missing her coffee (yikes! Haha..), but Long our driver had some fruit and bread waiting for us in her boat so that was a pleasant surprise. Anyway, off we went down the river, first destination was the Cai Rang floating market…amazing! Really cool seeing all the boats huddled together, each carrying a load that might consist of pineapples, fruits and vegetables or in some cases textiles (each boat had a pole sticking up with a sample of whatever they were carrying tied to it). The fact that we were in such a small boat allowed us to get right into the thick of things (even getting into an accident when a gal in a similar boat who was going too fast ran into us…our guide was pissed to say the least…). Larger tour boats full of people could only watch from the perimeter of the market, and they sadly missed most of the action… Long then surprised us with a question of “Coffee?” and next
Ba Ba Ba!
First beer in Vietnam... (KC) we came upon a small boat that looked like a floating convenience store, that also had fresh coffee! Karen couldn’t stop grinning, and it turned out to be an amazing cup of hot black water of love, most excellent!
We then made our way out of the market and headed further downstream to another one, The Phong Dien floating market I believe…very cool as well, but things seemed to be wrapping up when we were there (it was probably 10 am at this point, with the peak market time being 6-8 am…). Still fun getting into the thick of it again, and Long had grabbed a pineapple and prepared it for us; very fun hanging out with some fresh fruit watching the daily market business unfold before our eyes...
Next we got off the main river channel and headed into a canal, very pretty and certainly calmer than the river. We passed several houses, all the while Long was pointing out the various flowers and fruits growing along the banks, before stopping at a rice paddy and getting out to explore some sites on land. The paddy was beautiful, took some fun pics, and then took a stroll
Hello Chau Doc...
Cyclos can't be beat...haha.... (KC) up river while seeing all sorts of fruit trees and plants (finally saw a pepper plant-the spice variety-and after sampling one bud I still have the taste of pepper in my mouth, strong!). We wandered around for about half an hour and then it was back to the boat for some more cruising before stopping again for a pint and a bite to eat…it was now midday and very warm, so it was back in the boat and back to Can Tho…
This tour turned out to be a highlight of the trip for me; our guide Long was fantastic (and tons of fun!), the markets were amazing and the canals beautiful…do not miss doing this if you get into this area, and I strongly recommend going in a smaller boat…
The rest of the day was spent poking around Can Tho, getting some emailing done and then dinner…did get coaxed into trying Snake Wine, not bad! Little daunting when they show you the big glass jar it’s in, complete with a large rattlesnake inside…tasted like a weaker tequila for the curious ones reading this…haha…
Was expecting more of a greener, rural setting in the Delta, but
View from Sam Mountain..
I think that's Cambodia in the distance... the path we took was pretty urban. Would have been nice to see more of the south and get off the tourist track but unfortunately we didn’t have the time…again the river trip more than made up for this, absolutely beautiful sites…
Next stop Saigon!
(Some photos copyright of Karen C., denoted by (KC)...used with kind permission)
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kay
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