Cuu Long Hotel Can Tho

... informed me that our 'direct' bus was not going to be as direct as we thought and we needed to change somewhere along the way. Undeterred we hopped on the dirty, battered bus that looked like it had been used since and probably during the war with the locals. The second problem was the fact that the bus got busy and we squeezed as many people as we could into seats (there were 7 people on our 5 person bench seat) and onto the floor. As the road was so bumpy and the traffic so ...

... produce that isn't grown locally & the smaller boats come to buy off them to sell in their local businesses. The bigger boats in this area have a stick with the produce they sell tied to it so the small boats know what they are selling.


Other small boats that cook on board are going around selling ...

... help us check into our hostel. It came as no surprise when thirty seconds after getting into our hostel room we had a knock on the door and the same “friendly” local was trying to sell us a tour of the floating market at double the going rate! We politely declined her generous offer but she didn't seem to want to take no for an answer. After a short and honest exchange of opinions she finally accepted we ...

... feeble man welcomed us up the muddy path to his home. He took us around his farm and showed us numerous kinds of exotic fruits that he was growing as well as his hogs and chickens. He asked where we were from and after telling him "America", he wanted us to wait while he went inside to get something. He brought out a certificate that showed he was trained by the US Army in 1968 at a Fort in Virginia in electrical engineering.

Once back on land, we tried ...

... passing houses we'd hear 'hello' from small voices within the home or yard and children would trample out to the path and wave at those behind those in the front. That evening we took a boat to CaiBe Island where we spent the night at a homestay. We slept on army-type cots covered in mosquito nets... the three of us ladies in one 'room' (which was really just a curtain enclosure) and the two couples in two other 'rooms'. That night we went to bed ...

... was wel even zoeken naar de plaats waar het bootje zou vertrekken vanuit Ca Mau! Sjouwensd met een rugzak is elke kilometer een heel eind! Maar met behulp van de lieve Vietnamesen hebben we het gevonden. En wat een ontvangst! Iedereen stond om ons heen en ze wilden alles van ons weten. Nou ja, vooral van Michiel! De man is hier soms toch iets belangrijker... Voor het eerst koude koffie op. Zelfs Nienke vond het ' best lekker'. En daar gingen we, weer een mooie bootreis tegemoet ...

... good except the beer was room temperature. Room temp being around 90 degrees. I rarely get a properly iced down beer over here. If you are lucky, it has been sitting in the shade. If you are really lucky, it has been in a cooler with ice for more than 15 minutes. Mostly though, it is just warm. And this is not a Nut Brown English Ale with flavor at warmer temps. Just an average Budweiser. They seem to think it is ok to drink ...

Hey all! My Mekong River dalta part started as I was expecting... my traveling route changed... The final destination in Vetnam didn't- i'm still heading to Chau Doc. Agency that sold me my ticket as usual here told me one story, when i got on the bus story changed. But it's too late to regret. I'm moving forward to Mekong. The trip was not bad, going on the bus first, then got on ...

... stand. Hier bekamen wir dann das im Preis inbegriffene traditionelle Gericht 'kalter Reis auf Schwein mit 3 Bohnen'. Immerhin wurde uns nach dem Essen die Freiheit gegeben uns noch ein wenig mit dem Fahrrad in der Gegend zu bewegen. Zum Abschluss der Tour kam dann noch unser letzter Hoffnungsschimmer, die fahrt durch die Mekong Kanaele. Leider war aber Ebbe und die Kanaele fast leer, so war es im Prinzip nur ...

... I can't even begin to type out what he was telling us. His English pronunciation got worse and worse as the day went on. Herded back on the boat again we make the distance to land where we pick up another bus to take us to Can Tho, our final destination.......it can't come soon enough we thought! Another hour or so and we have joined a long queue of cars and lorries at stand still. Then Hi Hi stands up and announces "x-queeze me everybody right now is Tet which is New ...