Trip Report: Day 2 Mekong Delta
LG woke up feeling worse than ever and couldn't join us for the 9 usd 1 day Mekong Delta tour. Ho Teck and I ate our free breakfast and then made our way to the Sinh Cafe office which was only a 3 min walk from our guesthouse.
We signed up for the tour which would bring us to the Cai Be floating market as well as the Vinh Long market. The tour guide dropped a bombshell on us when he told us that the destination was about 120km away from Saigon and the ride would be approximately 3 hrs. That would made a 240km round trip and 6 hrs bus ride in total. It didn't sound appealing at all.
The guide tried hard to tell us more about Vietnam but I must really listen attentively to understand his English. Hence most of the time I just looked out of the window to soak up the scenery.
After a 3hr ride we reached a place where we transferred to a boat. The boat took us on a tour of the Cai Be floating market. By then it was almost 11am and whoever who needed to do their shopping had already done so. There were still a few boats with goods around and the landmark of the area was a church which won't be out of place in any European town.
The boat stopped at a pier and we all disembarked to see traditional Vietnamese factory which made rice crackers, rice paper, rice wine, etc. Ho Teck and I stopped to buy some rice crackers and by the time we were done no one from our group was around.
One of the shop owners pointed us the direction but we did not know whether to trust her. I was quite afraid that the boat had left without us. However we finally caught up with my group and even get to sample some Vietnamese rice whiskey.
Among the members of the tour group, there were these two Vietnamese ladies whom we made friends with. One of them was more friendly and she liked to chat with us while the other friend was more quiet. They even bought us drinks during our lunch.
The boat ride ended at Vinh Long which was the main market of the area. We walked down the main street of the small town before boarding the bus back to Saigon. The return trip was not eventful; we exchanged contacts with the girls and promised to send them the photos.
The tour wasn't particularly interesting; my tour guide during the Halong Bay tour was much better. However I didn't think that I got too bad a deal; return bus journey with boat trip on Mekong plus a free lunch thrown in should at least worth the 9 bucks that I paid.
Back at the guesthouse LG seemed to have recovered from his sickness. Dinner was down the street at an Italian restaurant. Then we went further down to another place to have Vietnamese coffee and dessert. In between them we settled our onward transportation to Phnom Penh as well.
I had to check the results of my bidding online before I climbed the 5 levels' worth of stairs to our room. I was pretty satisfied that I got all my bids. Ho Teck showed us some interesting photos and I had a rough idea how his latest prey looked like now.
We signed up for the tour which would bring us to the Cai Be floating market as well as the Vinh Long market. The tour guide dropped a bombshell on us when he told us that the destination was about 120km away from Saigon and the ride would be approximately 3 hrs. That would made a 240km round trip and 6 hrs bus ride in total. It didn't sound appealing at all.
The guide tried hard to tell us more about Vietnam but I must really listen attentively to understand his English. Hence most of the time I just looked out of the window to soak up the scenery.
After a 3hr ride we reached a place where we transferred to a boat. The boat took us on a tour of the Cai Be floating market. By then it was almost 11am and whoever who needed to do their shopping had already done so. There were still a few boats with goods around and the landmark of the area was a church which won't be out of place in any European town.
The boat stopped at a pier and we all disembarked to see traditional Vietnamese factory which made rice crackers, rice paper, rice wine, etc. Ho Teck and I stopped to buy some rice crackers and by the time we were done no one from our group was around.
One of the shop owners pointed us the direction but we did not know whether to trust her. I was quite afraid that the boat had left without us. However we finally caught up with my group and even get to sample some Vietnamese rice whiskey.
Among the members of the tour group, there were these two Vietnamese ladies whom we made friends with. One of them was more friendly and she liked to chat with us while the other friend was more quiet. They even bought us drinks during our lunch.
The boat ride ended at Vinh Long which was the main market of the area. We walked down the main street of the small town before boarding the bus back to Saigon. The return trip was not eventful; we exchanged contacts with the girls and promised to send them the photos.
The tour wasn't particularly interesting; my tour guide during the Halong Bay tour was much better. However I didn't think that I got too bad a deal; return bus journey with boat trip on Mekong plus a free lunch thrown in should at least worth the 9 bucks that I paid.
Back at the guesthouse LG seemed to have recovered from his sickness. Dinner was down the street at an Italian restaurant. Then we went further down to another place to have Vietnamese coffee and dessert. In between them we settled our onward transportation to Phnom Penh as well.
I had to check the results of my bidding online before I climbed the 5 levels' worth of stairs to our room. I was pretty satisfied that I got all my bids. Ho Teck showed us some interesting photos and I had a rough idea how his latest prey looked like now.
posted by shyh jie at 12:14 AM
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