Blogs from Mekong River Delta, Vietnam, Asia - page 10

CAN THO Le lendemain nous prenons l'avions d'hanoi pour Can Tho. Direction le sud et le chaud! on a tellement hate. La veille nous avions enfin profite de Hanoi sans pluie. Du monde dehors! partout dasn les resto et les bars! une ville vraiment plaisante. et on a mange dasn un bouiboui qui proposait des sortes de fondue bourguignonne avec toute sortes de viandes marinees dasn du gingembre et citronnelle. trop trop bon! Bref. Retour a Can Tho. Nous arrivons en pleine journee et sous le soleil, du coup en survolant le delta on peut admirer les nuances de vert. de culture de riz et l'arbres fruitier partout! Un taxi nous amene a l'hotel. On dechante un peu. Bon c/;est vrai, c'est pas cher 12$ la chambre plutot correcte. mais on est en bord de voie ... read more

We were picked up yesterday morning by our guide, Lee, and headed off on a two hour drive in a nice air conditioned van to the Mekong Delta region. We stopped off for a coffee on the way, Lee introduced us to Vietnamese coffee which is super super strong, black and on ice. It's like A quadruple espresso. We opted for the iced coffee version with milk, so Max got to top up on caffeine at last. Lee drinks about 3 or four of these a day, he told us his grandma used to feed it to him when he was about three months old and he used to cry if he didn't get it! An interesting drive to the wharf, very useful having a guide to explain everything on the side of the road along ... read more

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City in the late afternoon and caught a taxi to our hotel. At check-in the receptionist warned us of thieves in the city and also advised us to avoid certain areas after dark. That was unusual because so far I had always felt safe in Vietnam. We did not have a lot of time left, so we decided to walk to the market that was not far from our hotel and from there to the Mekong River. We had already gotten used to crossing the very busy streets in Vietnam, but the streets in Ho Chi Minh were different. Here it really was a challenge. There were many lanes and there was a lot of traffic. I mean, really a lot of traffic. We managed to cross most streets, but ... read more

After breakfast, we check out of the hotel. We have repacked so that we can live out of one carry-on for tonight. On the bus and we are off to the Mekong Delta, about 3 hours SE of Saigon. It's a long drive down Highway 1, the main road that stretches the length of Vietnam. We use the opportunity to observe ordinary life in progress as we drive by. There are countless shops and businesses right lining the highway. There's nowhere to park, so clearly the target clientele is motorcyclists. As I've noted before, everyday activities often spill out onto the sidewalk and even the road. It's rare to see someone sitting at a table. More commonly one squats or sits on a low stool. We see people engaged in everything from preparing food to fixing ... read more

We had been hoping we could find a way to drop into see our friend Susan in Can Tho, Vietnam, to check out how her tour business was going. So, when we made plans to visit Europe again we decided we would fly via Ho Chi Minh City and stop over for a few days. We have been in contact with Susan for a while via social media helping with ideas when she was setting up her personalised tours around Can Tho. It was great that we would finally get the chance to experience “Can Tho Touring” for ourselves. We made our plans and Susan gave us all the info we needed about bus connections from HCMC to Can Tho, plus recommended some hotels that were close to the bus station. With our bookings complete we ... read more