Ky An Hotel Chau Doc

... mechanic in the war.

Later that evening we decided to go for dinner at one of the street stalls near our guest house. They spoke little English and the menu was impossible to translate, so a kind lady took Sedge to the "kitchen" (A few pots and pans and a BBQ/burner on tables on the pavement) so Sedge could point out what we wanted. This was fine, but then we figured out we'd never learned the Vietnamese word ...

... hot, but very funny, hour and a half, we sat overlooking a brick quarry bay and ate our packed lunch of bread and cheese triangles, typical vietnamese cuisine (haha).
Our next stop, after getting a boat back to the mainland, was Ninh Binh. Here we hired a motorbike and drove round the beautiful surrounding countryside, limestone casts jutting out of rice fields so green that they hurt your eyes even with sunglasses on. At Tam Coc we hired a boat which rowed us through rice fields past ...

... geniessen. An der Grenze mussten wir aussteigen und mit einem anderen Boot weiter nach Chau Doc fahren. Es war ein super Erlebnis auf dem Mighty Mekong River herumzucruisen...auch wenn der Spass ganze 7 Stunden gedauert hat.

Chau Doc ist zwar im Lonely Planet als Highlight drin, aber eigentlich ist es eher eine Durchgangsstadt mit ca. 3 Restis und keiner einzigen englischsprachigen Person (damit meinen wir nicht mal yes oder no). Leider ist der Unterschied ...

... the worse and it looked as if it wasn't going to stop. Which was a shame as it meant the floating
market was closed.

So we continued onto our next stop, which was a small brick factory. We were shown around and to my surpise the workforce was at least 70% female. It seems the women have the same labour intensive jobs as the men. It was a little frightening to see these women hurl around carts full of clay bricks like it was nothing ...

... so pretty lanterns, massive inflatable balloons, children with deep fried things! People laughing, shouting, weeing in the street etc etc. And it's complete mayhem. There's a lot of concrete here as well but, unlike Cambodia, every building's painted a different colour. I arrived at my hotel, checked in and found that my room on the 4th floor was cool, comfortable and clean (in order of importance), it also had a TV. Now, I was pretty tired by this stage ...

... we were going, everyone assuming that it was somewhere nearby. After a couple of hours driving we got on a ferry, there were now serious rumblings of unrest among the peasants. I found the whole thing highly amusing. Most of the other passengers were not hard core backpackers; more holidaymakers and honeymooners; and were a little disgusted by the quality of service, there was also some trepidation about what the hotel would be like. I'd been chatting to a young German couple; all ...

... two older women walking with their arms linked, men walking with their arm around another's shoulder or a teenage boy standing behind another with his arms wrapped around his neck. It's special to see this closeness of companions.
> Men sitting around... everywhere you look the men are sitting around... either waiting for a fare in their cyclos or taxis or having a bia hoi with the boys or just lazing in a hammock. I can see it if you're a fisherman and ...

... mensen uit het stadje geen informatie willen geven over deze boot. Ze willen niet dat toeristen hier gebruik van maken. Toch overal gevraagd maar iedereen gaf aan dat de boot niet meer vaart. Jammer, maar dat moeten we dan maar geloven. Toen op zoek gegaan naar het busstation. Een eindje lopen en met al die straathonden was dit soms nog best spannend voor Nienke (stom, stom, het handige apparaatje dat ik heb gekregen om ...

... as we are so close to Cambodia - but no it was truly rubbish! What a let down - good to have a walk by the river though ;-) Back to hotel for margaritas and dinner - goats cheese ravioli vichyssoise and steaks creme brulee and chocolate fondant - yummy!!!!!! Victoria - dinner ambiance - 4.5/5 service 4.5/5 room 4/5 breakfast 4.5/5 total - 17.5/20 Victoria - Hotel quality 4.5/5 service 4/5 val 4 money 4/5 ambiance 4/5 total 16.5/20

Another very long day of travel, via boat, bus, boat, bus, ferry, bus, etc. Finally pulled into Chau Doc, the last major city in Vietnam at about 6:00. The bus driver explained to the bus that the rice had been harvested, and as a result all the "rice flys" have moved into the cities--which explained the previous night. We were warned that this would be ...