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Published: February 7th 2009
Delta Views
Fishing boats on the DeltaDay 27/28/29 - Ha Tien
The first bus ride from Can Tho to Rach Gia took about 31/2 hours. It was a pleasant trip and a nice way to see the countryside. To the right of the bus were houses sandwiched between the road and the canal and beyond the water, green rice paddies extended as far as the eye could see. To the left the same ramshackle houses lined the street with rice paddies in the distance. G lended her excellent vocal skills to the background Vietnamese music, much to the amusement of the guy next to us. The only compliant we had was the woman throwing up into a plastic bag right behind S. Around 4PM, we reached Rach Gia, which is along the southwestern coat of Vietnam and caught the next bus to Ha Tien, 30 minutes later.
The bus ride to Ha Tien was a bumpy one but with no one spilling their guts just inches away from us, it seemed like paradise. However, G’s uncanny ability to attracted mosquitoes left us swatting them away for the better part of the trip. Most passengers (all locals) probably thought we had some mild form of Tourettes
with all of our sudden movements, but one guy even joined us in swatting. We soon became professional assassins and liquefied all the mosquitoes in the mini bus with their remains displayed on the back of chairs in front of us. The last 30 minutes of the bus ride followed the coast line which gave spectacular views of the Gulf of Thailand. Unfortunately, the dark sands along the coast were littered with trash. This is something we have noticed a lot of while in Vietnam - many roadsides, seas, caves, canals just covered with plastic bags, water bottles, candy wrappers, etc. To the right of the bus we some of the lushes scenery we had scene yet. It was the type of landscape we always see in the Vietnam War movies - towering palm trees, rolling green hills, completely over grown, little houses set us in a small sandy clearing among the trees.
It was just getting dark as we pulled into Ha Tien which is a small river front town right on the border with Cambodia. It was used by the US during the war as a base for supporting swift boats on “Operation Market Time”. Now, is
Gulf of Thailand
Our scenic drive to Hon Chong. popular destination for Vietnamese travel, but not foreign tourist. Not even MyTravel Blog has this city in their database. We were debating whether to come here or go to the touristy Phu Quoc Island, but ended up deciding on HaTien besucase it would give a more authentic interaction with local Vietnamese.
As always our bus was greeted by a wave of motorbike drivers and we found one that spoke quite good English and hopped on his (and his friend’s) bike and headed into town towards our hotel - Viet Toan. For 140,000 dong a night (about $7.00 total per night), it was quite a bargain considering it had A/C, hot water and TV (except there were only 3 channels, none in English). Our drivers said they would take us around the next day, so we agreed to meet them in the reception area at 8AM the next day. We walked around the night market along the river front and spotted the only Western tourist we would see for the next few days. Everywhere we walked children would run out of their houses screaming “hello” and waving all the while with the biggest grin. Even adults would shout out “hello”
to us while waving. Even those that didn’t greet us with hello were turning heads and looking at us. We totally felt like the Brangelina of Ha Tien.
On Thursday, Feb. 5th, we met with our drivers and after just a little bit of haggling, we got them to take us to Hong Chong beach (40K South of Ha Tien) and then to the caves just north of the town. They agreed on the price soweonce again straddled their bikes and set off to Hong Chong. The ride for the first 20Kwas the same we had seen coming into town, but then we kept going south and past huge limestone rocks (karsts), rice paddies and bustling fishing villages. Hong Chong is like a miniature Ha Long Bay with pagodas. Again we were met with stares and waves as we walked along the boardwalk. We board a boat to see a cave nearby thatios only accessible by boat. Unfortunately, we ended up renting out the entire boat which set us back $5 each, but we had come so far we didn’t want to miss out on anything now. But we had one of our motorbike drivers - Nam (the one
Bridge to Nowhere
Sarah Palin would have been proud! This was the 'plank' we walked to get into the caves at Hong Chong that spoke the most English) come with us. It was a good thing we did as we were wearing sneakers and didn’t realize that we would have to wade knee deep into water to get to the entrance of the cave. Our driver let S have his flip flops while the boat guy let G use his. Inside the cave was magnificent with tons of crevasses and stalactites. Back on the boat we circled the famous line stone formations called Hon Phu Tu (Father and Son).
We made our way back to HaTien for lunch. We ordered the beef with onions and rice and ate as mush as we could stomach - plus it’s hard to enjoy your lunch while all the patrons and workers stare at you while eating. 30 minutes later our drivers picked us up and we headed to the caves nearby.
The first cave - Thach Dong - housed a Buddhist temple with spectacular views of the countryside. Our second stop was to the complex of Phong Nha which is 400 million years old and holds 14 large caves. It took us about 2 1/2hours for us to see all the caves (we saw
Entering The Caves
Nam and S about to enter the cave at Hon Chong 13 of the caves; one was just too far out of the way for us to bother). The mountain did have a good stone path to follow but the sun was beating down hard and the constant up and down took its toll on us. We also did a bit of rock climbing once inside the caves do some exploring thanks to G’s flashlight. A few of the caves housed bats much to G’s delight and S’s utter fright. We also impressed Nam with our spooky ghost noises and our imitation of monkeys. On the other side of the mountain is Cambodia and we waved hello to it and told it we’d be there in no time. After losing about half our body weight through sweat we made it to the exit. Exhausted as all hell, we headed back to the hotel where S enjoyed a two hour nap and G read up on Cambodian and Laos history. When S finally woke up we made some instant noodles for the second night in a row (they are $0.25 and feed both of us), showered and packed for our trip to Chau Doc.
The next morning we went to breakfast
Relaxing
G&S relaxing after our cave exploration adventure. where G tried to convince S the milk in her coffee was bear’s milk. Steph however insists she has never drunk milk from tit of a bear, and wants everyone to know that. However, G begs to differ (the fresh milk is served in an aluminum pop open can and it was wrapped with paper with a picture of a mama bear feeding a baby bear). After a stroll through town and many, many “hellos” later we met up with our motorbike guys who took us to the bus station. We purchased a ticket to Chau Doc for 45,000 dong (about $2.50) and waited for our bus to depart. As we were waiting this old man who spoke good English, told us he was in the Special Forces - Airborne that worked with the Green Berets in NhaTrang. He said that he hated Communism and wished for Freedom. He then went on to tell us that his wife and two children were killed during the war and started to tear up. That sent G’s water works going as well. Steph (the most emotional of the two) tried to keep her composer and attempt comfort G and the old man. It
was a somber few moments but rightly so as the history of Vietnam is not for the faint of heart.
At noon, our bus was ready to leave, so we said our goodbyes to the old man and Nam who said that they wished we would comeback to Ha Tien. We took one look at our bus and knew this one going to be one for the records…….
Till then - lots of love
G & S
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JJ
non-member comment
great story
Hi girls. Yet again another great story and good pics. I bet the caves were awesome. the temples inside must have been cool too. be careful with those mosquitoes! I love the story at the end. what a great end to this leg of the trip. what a great encounter you had. it moments like those that you keep with you for a long time!!! Be safe. Be well!!! <3 JJ