Blogs from Mekong River Delta, Vietnam, Asia - page 5

The Cambodian-Vietnam border is a funny little place, not like any other border crossing I have done before. I was going to do my usual solo-crossing, which would mean a motorbike or tuktuk from Kep to the border, then a motorbike from there to the Vietnamese town of Ha Tien, and then the ferry across to Phu Quoc Island (primarily to visit the Vinpearl Safari). But there is a tourist mini-van which does the same route, with the ferry included, for US$18 which is probably cheaper than doing it by myself (the ferry is US$10 alone). So I took that option. The leaving time was supposed to be 10.30am but was, naturally, quite a bit later. It didn't really matter because the ferry wasn't until 1.30pm. Normally at a border crossing you have to take your ... read more

On etait contents de quitter le capharnaüm de HCMC pour la tranquillité du delta. Hélas, même cette tranquillité est tombée proie aux mobilettes! Ce pays anciennement royaume du velo est devenu un pays de mobilettes. Avec la pollution et les problèmes de traffic afférents. Et le développement d'une nouvelle industrie, fabrication de masques contre la pollution. Les filles ont même de masques agencés a leur tenue! Nous sommes allés en bus de HCMC à Vinh Long, ville de delta et puis nous avons pris le traversier pour l'île An Binh. Notre gîte (homestay) est comme un petit auberge au milieu d'un beau jardin avec des arbres fruitiers, d'orchidées, des canaux et d'un étang de poissons. Un vrai oasis! On a marché dans le dedal de ruelles longeant les canaux du village pour voir les vergers de ... read more

Normally I'm not one to book guided tours but the options of 1,2 or 3 day tours exploring the Mekong delta seemed to be the only feasible way of doing it. I chose the 2 day, 1 night tour that included an overnight in a local rural village homestay and that ended up costing me $30 with three meals and all transportation. There ended up being about 15 tourists on our bus. Not my cup of tea but there was definitely some value in taking a guided tour. The ride from Ho Chi Minh to our first stop, a little seaside town that I can't recall the name for took about 2 hours. We checked out a Buddhist pagoda with three very large Buddhas of different stances. I learned a few things about what the different ... read more

I’m not very good at keeping secrets. Case in point, I was visiting my friend in the city of Phnom Penh when she told me about this obscure little island off the Cambodian coast owned by the Vietnamese. I realize now she may have accidentally volunteered this info after becoming fed up listening to me moan on about returning to soggy Canada. “Mate! Phu Quoc is what Thailand was thirty years ago!!” Her brown eyes explode as she oversold it with a classic Australian twang. I whip out my phone so I can immediately Google a beach hut and alarm quickly crosses Sarah’s face. “Aw mate, you can’t tell anyone else about it, ok. We expats want to keep it all to ourselves.” I'm like. "What, are you doing the sequel to the movie The Beach ... read more

1ere journée à Phu coq. Nous avons réservé une excursion pour visiter le sud del île : au programme, visites expresses de la ferme perlière. On nous explique en 5 minutes comment ils placent l implant dans l huître, nous montrent une perle de récolte dans une huître puis 20 minutes dans le magasin pour acheter perles et colliers. Je suis raisonnable : je ne suis rien acheté. Juste des petites boucles d'oreille pour Lola! Puis, visite de la coconut prison, construite et utilisee par les français jusqu'en 1954 puis par les américains...ensuite, visite de l usine de nuoc mam(sauce poisson), réputée mondialement. La encore, visite expresse : on voit des barils en bois , on sent l odeur du poisson (assez ecoeurante je dois dire) puis nous avons 10 minutes pour en acheter. Puis direction ... read more