Package
Vietnam vacations. At
7AM, our buddy, with his moto-friend, was there as promised to take us to
the 7:30am bus to Càn Tho.... out of the goodness of his heart.....imagine
that...what a guy! By now we are pretty fearless about getting on the
motorcycles with all our gear.
To our surprise, before we even got to the bus station, a rolling bus
stopped for us and our packs were quickly transferred. Before we realized
what happened, we sat in the bus and were asked for the equivalent of $10
each for the trip. We realized it was outrageous for the rickety non air-co
bus we found ourselves. Dave asked if everyone else paid that. "Of course,"
was the reply. I said okay let us out of the bus. The price dropped by $4
immediately. But with limited communication skills, we were still at the
short end of the stick, figuring we were still paying double what we should
for this class of bus. But it was difficult to justify getting off and
spending an hour or two to find another bus which could save us three bucks
each. This was a local rattling window type bus and, in the end, we gave in
and chalked it up as a lesson learned. The lesson? We should have gone ahead
of time to the bus office where prices are usually posted.
We insisted on having the front seats next to open window, which was one
constellation. The landscape was fascinating and beautiful; the lush green
landscape, the rice paddies, fruit orchards, vegetable fields. The entire
trip followed rivers and we watched wonderful village life. Rice was drying
on plastic sheets next to the narrow road.
Three hours into the trip, a wheel seized up. A front wheel bearing needed
to be replaced. They lacked proper tools and the driver's assistant pounded
on the frozen part of the bearing with a cold chisel for over an hour before
he was able to cut it off so he could put a new one on. Overall, it took
about an hour and half to fix and we continued.
Then the bus arrived at a cross road where they told us “Cần Thơ, Cần Thơ”.
We figured maybe we were at a bus station outside of town because CT is
supposed to be a good size town. Again everything happened really quickly.
Before we realized what happened, we stood on the street with our packs,
traffic zooming by and sweat pouring down our backs. "Let’s have a bite to
eat here before heading into town." Dave barely took three steps before we
were led by our hands across mad traffic to another bus. "To Càn Tho" a lady
missing most of her front teeth, insisted. "No money," she said. We got on
to the other rickety bus. It still turned out to be another 2.5 hour ride to
Càn Tho.
At the real bus station, Dave negotiated hard for two moto taxies (ex om) to
take us the final kilometer an a half to the riverfront. Those seem to be
the main form of transport here in Vietnam. We had them drop us off at Sao
Hom, a nice riverfront restaurant where we dined before looking for a
hotel. I had pizza and Dave a local fried noodle dish. It was expensive,
for Vietnam standards and the food was excellent.
Dave scouted a half dozen guidebook recommended hotels and stumbled upon the
one month new, Number 1 Hotel, a five story skinny mini hotel with very big
and very nice air con rooms starting at $14 per day. There were plenty of
cheaper places in town but this one was well worth a few extra dong.
Càn Tho
-Mani & pedicure 60000 dong / $3
-Night market food
-Rice cakes banana and coconut
-We interviewed boat tour people before settling with Thuy for a 6 hour
private boat tour for $20.
5:30am floating market tour
--First stop Cái Răng wholesale floating market. (7km)
--Rice noodle factory
--Phong Dien floating market (18km)
--Mangrove and nature walk
Lâp, Thuy’s husband, was our boat driver and guide for today. He picked us
up before dawn and we walked with him to where he had moored his small boat.
We shared the river with a variety of boats differing in size from barges
freighters and a variety of interesting wooden boats locals use. The river
supports a wonderful mix of transport. On both sides of the wide river, we
glimpsed narrow wooden or cement bridges with steady streams of people
walking and cycling across.
Lâp pointed out the sun rising behind us as the orange glow spread across
the sky.
Laden ferries crossed the river at frequent intervals, connecting the
labyrinth of trails and roads through the delta.
As we approached Cái Răng market at a fork in the canal, a guy floated up to
us calling out "coffee, tea hot or ice?" He had an efficient set-up and
apparently didn't spill a drop. Why did we bother to bring our own cool
drinks?
We got closer into the wheeling and dealing of this wholesale market and it
was hopping!
Large wooden boats, loaded with piles of squashes, onions, cabbage, melons,
mangoes, pineapples, and garlic, came here to buy and sell. People haggled
and loaded and unloaded goods. It's a busy place. And ladies in small boats
floated by to sell hot food to the hungry merchants.
Because we were in such small boat, Lâp easily maneuvered in between the
tightest spots and we had a ball getting an up close view of fascinating
cultural experience.
We watched a few large tour boats breeze by the perimeter, with megaphone
equipped guides blasting stories in their ears. The bewildered tourist
barely had time to frame a shot.
Our next stop was a rice noodle factory down a small side canal. They used
pretty much the same process we had watched in the village in Cambodia
except on a bit larger scale. The thin "crepes" are steamed for a few
seconds then dried on racks in the sun and then put through cutter.
We returned to the main thoroughfare and continued along the channel to
Phong Điền, another floating market. Phong Điền wasn't as big or lively as
Cái Răng. It had the same fruits, rice, lunch boats and was less crowded
this hour of the morning.
It was 8:30. “Ready for lunch?” Lâp asked. At 8:30?
We doubled back and turned left down a side channel and motored by houses
with decks and platforms hanging over the water's edge. Villagers washed
their clothes and bathed in the murky Mekong Delta river water.
After venturing into an even smaller channel, Lâp pulled the boat to a small
diving board size dock. It was time for the nature walk!
Lâp pointed us to follow a dirt path next to the narrow waterway where Lâp
shadowed us in the boat. At first we walked past durian and banana orchards.
Then we came to small bamboo house with large vegetable gardens, behind
which, expansive lush rice fields opened up. A cute little girl came out
with plastic bin and joined her parents picking beans. Continuing the hike,
we heard frogs jump in the river ahead of our approach, so peaceful.
We suddenly got to a precarious bridge and I was sure to take a picture of a
local lady when she effortlessly crossed it not realizing I would be next! I
was not so nimble!
Birds were few. Then I heard chirp, chirp, chirp. Chirp, chirp, chirp. I
looked and looked and tried to find what I imagined must be a colorful bird
in the branches.
When the sound got closer, I realized it was little boy wearing fun
squeaky-toy shoes!
Here the trail was paved and Lâp was waiting for us at the restaurant. It
became 9:30 by now. It was high time for lunch!!
The boat ride back to Can Tho was every bit as scenic. We continued through
the small canals in the mangroves before breaking back out to the wide
expanse of the Can Tho river. More fishing boat with nets, more barges, more
river life in general. We were back within the 5 to 6 hour estimate and
would have been happy to keep going. It was all we had hoped for.....
More Time in Càn Tho
Amazing lunch
-9 Vietnamese eggrolls
-Vegetable soup
-tofu stuffed gourd
-2x fried somethings, crisps & rice
-green beans
-2x ice tea
-------------
Total 49000 dong ($2.39)
Yes, we have made Càn Tho our home a bit longer-than planned. It is
relatively cool with nice afternoon breeze from the river cooling things.
This is all relative. It is still 34c. We enjoy the town, life on the river,
and the markets. It suited us for a week or so. Our hotel was comfortable
and central located. The everyday stuff, like the different food we
encounter, I like to write about.
For lunch today, we stumbled across this small place bursting at the seams
with people eating and slurping. That is a good sign so we decided to give
it a try. At the counter, we pointed to all the dishes that looked
interesting to us. A table was cleared and a fan was pointed in my direction
immediately. I guess they noticed the sweat pouring off my brow. And large
glass mugs of ice tea were put in front of us. Next came the 9 Vietnamese
egg-rolls. The vegetable soup followed by the tofu stuffed gourd, two fried
somethings, crispy seasoned chips made of fried dough & rice, and green
beans. It was all tasty and fresh, and above all, homemade. We asked for the
bill, which spurred a big discussion among the staff. One girl was joined by
another and they jabbered and jabbered. Then another person from the back
joined them and a calculator was brought out. Dave and I looked at each
other like "we've been had". Finally, the calculator was pushed in front of
us; 49000 dong ($2.39).
Lingering in Càn Tho
We had a second fabulous moonlit dinner at Sao Hom Riverside Restaurant. I
ordered the fried Mekong fish and Dave had the crispy noodles with seafood
again. It was another beautiful balmy evening. We watched the moon rise over
the Mekong. Small boats scurried between the larger boats to cross the
river. It appeared to be a chaotic mess of river traffic; ferrys crossing in
between various wooden boats, small flat motor motorboats ferrying people
back and forth, sometimes barely missing the larger ships, a free for all.
It looks like anything goes but it appears to work.
Dinner was served. My fish was cleverly perched up between large toothpicks
on a halved cucumber. The waiter then expertly operated on my fish like a
surgeon and had it looking even prettier with both meaty sides curled down.
He showed me how to fill the small rice pancakes with noodles, vegetables
and fish then roll it tight and dip it in the tangy dipping sauce. What a
treat. We lingered over this meal.
