The Mekong Delta

The southern most tip of Vietnam is the Mekong delta, miles of flood plains where they grow whole lot of rice and where canals are as numerous as the the roads and probably more important.

The main thing we wanted to see in the delta was the floating markets, so we landed in Can Tho or the bus and immediately booked a boat tour for the next morning...5:30 the next morning to be exact. $40 for about 7 hours on a private boat, complete with a captain, tour guide, including breakfast, we thought it was a pretty good value. But boy oh boy, did we really have to have the 5:30 pickup??? It isn't even light yet! Yes, the market people are early risers and as we found out hard workers. It took us about 30 minutes in our boat to get to Cia Rang the first and biggest of the three floating markets we would visit on our tour, it was already busy. Many boats of all sizes were filled to the max. with every type to fruit and vegetable you could imagine. Our first stop was at the breakfast boat for a typical Vietnamese breakfast of noodle soup then it was off to investigate the inner-workings of the floating market. Many vendors come to the market, live on their boats and don't leave until every last piece is sold. We sampled some pineapple, banana, pomelo, and watermelon. We visited three markets on our tour, each one a little smaller than the last. I liked the smaller markets the most, we could get closer into the action with our boats and interact with some of the vendors. I have to tell you, there were some real colourful characters. After a busy morning at the market we headed into one of the smaller canals where small villages with children running out to yell "hello", rice fields, and gardens were cut into the lush growth lined the banks. We were taken to a restaurant for a tea/coffee and a closer look at how they grow a few of the items we had seen for sale in that morning. It was a very nice day, we returned around 12:30 with most of the day left to explore the city.

After booking our bus tickets to Rach Gia, we sent the evening catching up with a few of our friends, namely Marg and Gerry from Brandon, who we met on the bus the day before and Fabian and Johana from Germany who would make the trip into Cambodia with us the next day. Oh and we bumped into yet another two girls, from Sweden, who we knew from Quy Nhon, up north...funny.

The following day, we and the young Germans were off to Kep, Cambodia. A mini bus picked us up at our hotel at 7:30 and took us to the main bus stop where we got on a big bus (thank God) which we would take to Rach Gia where we changed buses to another big bus (but WAY SLOWER) that would take us to Ha Tien, 7 km from the Cambodian border. Here we picked up motorbike taxis or 'ex om' that took us across the border and thru the 300 mt of no man land to Prek Chak, Cambodia. Once thru the border, visas costing us $25 US,at last we caught a taxi to Kep, 35 km away. Thanks to the border guard who told us to pay $20 for the taxi ride not the $40 that the taxi-driver wanted. Long story short, the total of 200 km took us 9 hours and how many changes on how many different modes of transportation...nothing is easy. And, Ken had to chase down the taxi, after he dropped us off, because his backpack was left inside. Ken commandeered a local on a scooter to chase down the taxi, tucked in tight to the handlebars, they sped wide-open for 8 km to catch the taxi just as it pulled over after realizing the pack was inside, another close call!

The view from Marg and  Gerry's hotel in Can Tho, the river is the stage for all the floating markets.

5:30 a.m. its still dark out, for crying out load!

This guys can really handle a boat ...what great balance!

Soup for breakfast, came to us on board our boat.

So many watermelons...these and many, many more.

Oh, more watermelons, and of course any other fruit or vegetable you would want.

Not only veggie or fruit but also dry goods like rice, wood and bottled drinks.

If you can't find it it isn't in season.  I love these hats, shade in the sun and cover in the rain.

Not all boats had long neck motors, in fact in the smaller markets a little muscle goes a long way.

Some real characters.

Some real characters, these two were guides from another boat.

Ain't they cute!

Motoring us a small channel, farmland and plantations on either side. 

How does your pineapple grow?

We are moving on, it's all good.  Ken has his feet up (at the front of the bus at last) and the driver has his offering to Buddha on the dash to keep us safe.