SUNRISE ON THE MEKONG DELTA

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After meeting Pete for breakfast we went to catch our bus. We were told that a taxi would collect us at take us to the bus station, but when he didn’t turn up till 12.25 we were a little worried. When we got in the taxi we were also worried that it may not make it to the station without breaking down. It wasn’t that old but it had not been looked after. All the window tinting was pealing off , there were so many dents it’s a wonder that it still looked car shaped and it made some noises that really were not healthy. As we got on our way we found there was even more wrong with it. Every time the driver took his foot off the accelerator we stalled. Mostly this didn’t matter because we were stuck in traffic, but when we stalled on a busy roundabout and struggled to get started again it was a little unnerving.

Luckily the bus didn’t leave till 1pm so we made it to the station on time. The bus however was not what we were expecting. It was not a coach, but a 15 seat local minibus. There was no leg room once again for poor Andy, but I guess this is what we should have expected when we went in search of a bargain and paid $3 less than anywhere else quoted. We did get there quicker than we would have in a coach, but where we got to was not Can Tho. We were told to get off at a service station just outside of Can Tho. We didn’t have a clue what was going on and the driver didn’t speak enough English to explain to us - we were just dropped on the roadside wondering what would happen next. Eventually a taxi turned up and told us to get in. Apparently our bus was continuing to somewhere else and rather than drop us off in town they employed a taxi to collect us. It would have been helpful if they had told us this at the booking office, but as we have found with a lot of transport in Vietnam, its best just to go with the flow and eventually some how you end up where you intended.

Finding a hotel was easier than we thought. As we got out of the taxi we could see a hotel manager waving at us from the other side of the road. The rooms were very basic but they were clean and cheap, so there was no point in looking any further. We were just taking our bags off our backs when there was a knock on the door. We opened it to find a woman smiling at us “You want to go on boat” she said and started rummaging in her bag for pictures to show us. There was only one reason for our trip to Can Tho and that was a boat trip down the Mekong Delta, but going in for the hard sell before we even had time to lock our room door was a bit much. We told her that we would think about at and let her know.

We wanted to check out some other options so we went for a walk around town in search of some tour operators. We walked up and down streets for ages but couldn’t find anywhere to book trips or even to book a coach to get us out of town. We came to the conclusion that if we wanted to go on a boat we would have to book it with the pushy lady from the hotel. On our way back to the hotel we also decided that after the boat trip we would leave as soon as possible. We had not been impressed with the sights of Can Tho. It felt a little like a run down seaside town, sort of like Felixstowe but with some fancy lighting.

As we walked through the door of the hotel the pushy lady spotted us straight away. We sat and listened to her sales pitch, complete with hand drawn map and drawings of the sunrise. It sounded like the kind of trip we had been hoping for so we booked for the following morning.

We stood outside our hotel at 5.30am as arranged. We watched as people came to collect other guests, but there was no sign of the woman we had booked our trip with. We were starting to wonder if we had been scammed when two ladies approached us and ushered us across the road to the riverside. As we stood by the water we were unsure what was going on, but eventually our boat woman turned up. She wasn’t too pleased with the two women, who we gather were trying to poach us. She showed us to her boat and explained that she was busy so her husband would be taking us. We were a little confused as we could see that there was already a couple sitting in the boat. When she noticed she told the couple to get out of the boat and started shouting at her husband. He looked like he got shouted at quite a lot, and she certainly sounded like she had got a lot of practice over the years. Eventually after we had swapped with the other couple and sat down she explained that she was annoyed with her husband because he had not checked the receipt before letting the other couple on the boat. We nodded and smiled and just hoped that the rest of the day would be more peaceful.

After a quick fuel stop we were finally moving. As we made our way along the Mekong Delta the huge bright orange sun rose behind us. The light dancing on the river and all the beautiful colours in the sky made up for having to get up at 5am.

As we carried on it became very clear just how crucial this river is to the many people that use it every day. From the houses built on stilts which lined the banks on either side, we could see people using the river for washing themselves, washing clothes, preparing food, and for drinking. The river is also used as transport with small boats operating as taxis, personal boats taking their children to school and business boats full of food and building materials.

We were taken to two floating markets. The first one was huge with what seemed like miles of boats laden with fruit and vegetables. Some boats were so full that they looked like they might sink if they didn’t sell some stock soon. The second market was much smaller, but there were still large boats full to bursting point with cabbages and onions. We pulled along side a smaller boat where a lady prepared us some pineapple to take on our journey.

The next part of our journey took us off the main river and down some small, winding canals. It looked just like I had imagined Vietnam to be. There were strange animal noises coming from the jungle on either side, small wooden shacks and bridges which were just planks of wood with a rope to hold onto. Everywhere we went small children ran barefoot along the banks waving and shouting hello until they could keep us with us no more.

We stopped for lunch at a home stay on the riverside. Our table was on a platform on stilts over the river. We enjoyed noodle soup and spring rolls while watching river life pass by. Floating stalls selling anything from fish to huge sacks of salt sailed past ringing their bells to attract attention. The staff brought us some dried sugar cane to try from one passing stall. It was a strange taste, neither of us could make our minds up if we liked it or not - it did wake us up though.

When lunch was over and we boarded our boat we noticed that it was only 10am. Getting up at 5am our bodies thought it was lunch time – we really should have been eating breakfast not spring rolls.

We arrived back at the hotel just before 12pm, collected our bags and wondered what to do with the next few hours. We had managed to book a bus to Chau Doc through our hotel the previous evening, but assumed that we would want lunch before leaving so had booked the 2:30pm bus. Now we were full with noodles and spring rolls we just wanted to get on the bus and get out of Can Tho. We called a taxi to take us to the bus station hoping that we could sneak onto an earlier bus.

As soon as we got out of the taxi we were approached by a ticket tout. We showed him our ticket and he told us that we could go on his earlier bus - just what we were hoping to hear. We were shown to the same kind of local bus that we had arrived on and we even had the same seats, but this time we were not going anywhere until we were full - when I say full I don’t just mean a bum in every seat. I mean four people in each row of seats meant for three and people sat on plastic stools in the isle.

When we finally started to move I thought we were on our way, but we were driving so slowly through the town that it would take days to get there. Then I realised that we were driving so slowly so that the woman sat by the door could stick her head out of the window and get other people on the bus. To me we were already full and there was no way that we would squeeze anyone else in…..how wrong could I have been. At one point during the journey I opened my eyes after a nap to count 28 people in that minibus including children on mothers laps, 3 people standing in the boot and a monk sat on an old ladies knee!! What was more worrying was we were still driving slowly looking for more passengers!

Considering that space was at a premium it didn’t stop the bus being over staffed. Obviously the driver is a necessity, I can even understand the woman who shouts out of the window but I was a little confused as to why there was a little old lady stood on our bags in the boot who’s job it was to hold the money.


Once again the bus dropped us off in the middle of nowhere, only this time there was no taxi to collect us. As we stood on the roadside we were approached by loads of moped taxis all trying to convince us to hop on the back so they could take us to town. We declined for a number of reasons. 1. The last moped Andy went on put him in hospital. 2. We had our big rucksack with us and 3. It was clear that they were trying to rip us off. They were telling us that town was twice as far as we knew it was and they were charging at least four times the rate that it should have been.

We stood on the roadside being showered with dust as the traffic went by. We were seriously considering walking the 5km but we knew in the heat with our bags and no pathway it would have been harder than it sounded. We wondered if we were seeing things when, just when we needed it, a taxi appeared through the dust. We told him the hotel we wanted to go to and he tried his luck with some heavily inflated prices to start with, but after much bartering we convinced him to put the meter on.

The hotel we had chosen thankfully had room for us. The rooms were tastefully decorated with bright pink walls and purple coving but we were only planning on staying one night so we were not too bothered.

We took a walk through a very old style local market with tiny wooden stalls selling everything from pineapples to puppies - if they were food or pets I could not tell you. We found a tour office and booked a boat to Cambodia for the following morning then went to an outdoor kitchen for a couple of beers and something to eat.

We got talking to a couple from Newcastle who were staying at our hotel. They had bought a motorbike in Saigon and travelled to Cambodia and were now on their way back. They were telling us that they had been a bit of an easy target for the police, who had stopped them many times wanting a pay off. They had paid a few times, but then came up with the ingenious idea of making their Geordie accents even stronger the next time they were pulled over. Apparently the policeman looked at them like they were totally mad and let them go without paying.

As it got dark and all the lights were switched on millions of tiny flies turned up to spoil our evening. All the shops on our walk home were forced to keep their doors closed to keep the flies out and small piles of dead flies were on every doorstep - we were glad to only have one night of it.

We spotted an internet café on the way home and popped in to search for a hotel for the following night. We were surprised to find an email from Pete telling us that he had arrived in Siem Reap in Cambodia. Now all we had to decide was if we would spend one night in Phnom Penh where the boat would drop us off, or if we would spend the whole day travelling so that we could go straight to Siem Reap.


That night as I was drifting off to sleep Andy jumped out of bed in a hurry and started looking around the room. He has said some strange things in his sleep before but so far he hasn’t progressed to sleep walking. I watched him wondering what he was up to, but it was only when he spoke that I realised he was still awake and he was on the hunt for a cockroach. Although cockroaches are common in hotels and everyone we had met so far had experienced them, we had been lucky enough to avoid them up until now. Andy pulled the desk away from the wall but the roach was incredibly quick and kept running out the other side. I kept watch as piece by piece we moved all the furniture. when I shouted (or screamed) Andy threw his trainer at it. He was a though one though. The first time the size 11 hit him I swear he looked back at us as if to say “is that all you’ve got!” After a few more hits we (mostly Andy) eventually got him, but I was still worried that others would get in through the huge gap under the door. I blocked the gap with a pillow and slept with one eye open.

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Comments

[An Trinh]

Hi Emma and Andy,
I'm An Trinh, a Vietnamese from Can Tho city. It's extremely funny when I read your travel in Can Tho city. I feel sorry for inconveniences you faced in Can Tho city. If you have a chance to come back to here, inform me via email [e-mail], I'll show you some more interesting places in Can Tho city. I want to be your friend, it's not for money. I promise! ^_^ Have a nice time with your rough roads!