The figures on the Mekong are huge. The river starts in Tibet and flows through China, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. It is the second biggest river delta in the world. 75% of Vietnam's population, 60mil people live here. They all make thier living in it, on it, around it or because of it. Think of anything you do and they do it in the Mekong, wash food in it, bathe in it, throw rubbish in it, drink it and even **** in it. Most of the fish in Aussie fish and chip shops comes from here. It is also the rice bowl of Vietnam.
This morning there were busses lined up the full length of the street all going to either the Mekong or Cambodia or both. Im in a small group of about a dozen and we have a small bus but it is big enough to spread out a bit so it is OK. First stop is a buying opportunity at Handicapped Handicrafts where they have people affected by Agent orange. The tour was ****, the stuff overpriced and no one bought anything.
MY THO
Next call was the port at My Tho. Every tour stops here, in fact every stop for 3 days was the same for every tour. At the port we get into boats to go over the river to BEN TRE. We went to a coconut candy factory for another buying opportunity. Lunch was Ok but I dont remember where it was. Then we went rowing around the canals, and had to wear a pointy hat, and everyone along the route told us to "tip money" to the women who rowed. This ended at another farm where we had fruit and listened to traditional music, for another tip, and another buying opportunity.
Then we had to swap to another bus to go to Can Tho. Some of our group went back to Saigon and some went on so we joined another group.
CAN THO
In Can Tho I stayed at Huy Huoang Hotel. Halleujia the $5/ night hotel is back. This place is included in the tour but the rack rate is $5. There are 2 beds, tile floor, TV and a bath room. What more could I need? Oh and A/C. bonus. I went down to the water front to look for food and wanted some meat on a stick but I havnt seen it anywhere here. They eat Rats and frogs here and openly sell them on the street but I couldnt find them on the menu anywhere and I couldnt convince any one to cook some if I bought them. I ended up with some noodle dish and supposed chicken? The Bia Saigon is a bit rough.. it took me 4 or 5 to get used to the taste and I usually expect a bit better from a 50cent beer. I cut sick in the night market for a while then went to bed early cos we got early start tomorrow. I had a room at the front of te hotel and the noise started at 3 am. I was awake from then so when I went to go for a walk at 4.15 I couldnt get out cos the place wa locked up. I had to wait till after 5 to get out. Lucky there wasnt a fire. It was a gloomy day and feels like it might rain. It is much cooler than it has been. Again breakfast was small, then we walked down to the dock to catch the boat to the floating market. We had to stop at the drivers uncle's fruit shop on the way for a buying opportunity then we did a lap of the markets. I thougt it was a bit underwhelming. Not a much hustle and bustle as I expected and smaller than I thought. It was OK but not outstanding. Some of the river traffic was a sight. Anything and everything that floats. Then we did another stop at uncle's fruit shop and them picked up a passenger mid river. Turned out it was a cousin selling trinkets in case we had not had enough buying opportunities.
We went up a canal to a rice noodle making factory. Every other tour beat us there so we had to wait. The tour was kinda interesting but I could have done without the buying opportunity. A bit further down the canal we stopped at a fruit farm. Just imagine how exciting that was watching the trees grow. There were a few fish ponds and no much else. The reason we are here is the hard sel to buy some fruit. The excitement was when a small kid on another tour fell in one of the ponds and his mum went hysterical. I was pissin it. We had some German d*** on the tour asking the dumbest questions.. he wont die wondering.
The group split up again. Most were going back to Saigon and about a dozen of us are going to Chau Doc. On the way to Chou Doc we stopped at a crocodile farm. You know how exciting i is to look at all the crocs lying around, nearly as much fun as watching fruit trees grow. What I liked was all the Bonsai trees in the gardens. They were everywhere. Some were brilliant. Another stop on te way was a Buddhist Temple. You know those buddhists think if they work hard in this life it will be easy in the next life. You guessed it the temple is built on a cliff and there is heaps of stairs to get to it. It called the "cave temple" cos there is a cave there..fancy that. I got a lot of photos and I will put them up as soon a I can.
CHAU DOC
I am staying at Thanh Nam 2 which is another $5/night hotel, this one has some critters in it so I might have to wear aeroguard to bed tonight. Tomorrow Im off to see the fish farms then back to Saigon for 2 nights and try to fly to Danang.
The tour today started early a 7am with a brisk walk to the dock for a boat to the fish farms. The place was packed with another tour that must have started as bit earlier than us so we kept going and went to the Cham Village. This is a minority tribe who live near the river on huge stilt houses and of course it was another buying opportunity. After a look around we went back to the fish farm. I was a cut out in the floor of a house on the river. They live in the house and have the fisk in cages under them. With all that excitement done we headed back.The boat driver cranked it up big time toget back.Kinda like a riding school horse, you gotta kick the guts out of it to get it to move till you turn for home then you cant stop them. Chau Doc is definitely a country town cos there is rice spread all over the road to dry and bullock carts , but it is still a big town. We didnt see the "vast paddie fields" promised in the brochure and considering the 3 hour drive there and back I would not do it again for the few minutes of lookin at a bit of stuff. It made for a long drive back to Saigon. In total it was 7 hours back to Saigon and we had buildings beside us for 6 hours of that.
The tour
I thought it was great value for money. You get a good over view and some of the stuff would be almost impossible to do on your own. If I had longer in the delta I would do the tour and finish at Chau Doc and make my own way back to Saigon to have a better look. I thought the 3rd day was overkill with 3hr drive there and back for a few minutes of sight seeing and it made the drive back to Saigon just too long at 7hr.
Some more random stuff about the delta. I read somewhere there is 100mil tonnes of silt washes down the Mekong every year. I can tell you the Vietnamese are doing their best to put it back. Most boats on the river are carting dirt back up the river. They are about 12-15 ft out of the waterr giong down and to the water line going back up. Its amazing to see the difference. In the delta you cross a bridge over the river or a canal about every 15 min for about 5 hr.
Im definately glad I did the tour.
Tomorrow (fri) I am flying to Danang and will then go to Hoy An. Im not sure if I will go straight to Hoy An or stay I Danang overnight. Either way I will be there for 3-4 days then head to the border.