Day Four: Chau Doc to Vinh Long

We woke up at 5am i think. We got to be at the bus station to catch our bus to Vinh Long. The journey took about 3h. The local buses always try to call out and see whoever wants to hop on so they can earn more. By about 1h away fr Chau Doc, my bus is packed. This bus has no AC and some passengers smoke in the bus. Luckily it was very early morning so the air is very fresh and cooling.

From ReidOn Travel.com, I know I need to look for Mekong Travel to get my accommodation, boat tours etc settled.

Mekong Travel

Tel 070-836-252, 0919-002-505; vinhlongmekongtravel@yahoo.com,

No 8, 1 Thang 5 St; open 7am to 8.30pm daily

We asked the bus driver and asked people on the way to find directions to Mekong Travel. After a huge round, we realised its actually very close to the bus station. We just need to cut across the local market. If you can find the river side and see the local ferry terminal, you can see a large alfresco kind of cafe. Mekong Travel is just round the corner and beside it is a small hotel: Van Tram. Opposite Mekong Travel is the older Cuu Long hotel. There's a newer one, also Cuu Long hotel, at the river side.

M and I proceeded to book a 2 day 1 night tour with Mekong Travel for usd $60 (2 pax). Details as follows:

Vinh Long - An Binh Island - Cai Be Floating Market

- potteries & brick kilns, bonsai garden, fruit nursery, biking around villages

- sampans on the small canals

- home stay, make and have dinner with local family. overnight

- breakfast and boat trip to Cai Be floating market

- handicraft village: coconut candy, rice paper, pop rice, sewing coconut-leaves for roof etc.

This is truyen *not sure if i've spelt her name correctly. She is very cheerful and 'playful'. She is a very nice guide and though she's only 6 months into this job, she is very passionate about it.

Vinh Long has several islands and there are many small arch bridges that link them up. Another mode of transport will be by boat on their various waterways and canals. Since we booked a private tour, we have boat to ourselves. Along the way, you can see various big boats transporting fruits, rice, rice husks, bricks, etc etc etc. I liked the tour because i get to see how these people make their earnings and live their lives. The only turn-off is the expensive lunch at a local house. The owners are very clever. They only offer two choices: either the elephant fish or the prawns.. costs us $270,000 dong! frankly it doesn't taste that nice. I prefer my usual rice from Chau Doc.



I did enjoyed the sampan ride on the small canals. Its really very tight. When there's another boat in the same canal, we had to help to push the boat away in order to pass through.

Our homestay place is at Mr Ba Linh's house on An Binh Island. He is an ex-VC soldier.. I think he's 80 year old if i remembered correctly. The whole family are very enthusiastic in having us. Mr Ba Linh does not speak english.. But he'll signalled you to follow him as he show off the nice flowers he grew in his garden and the turtles he kept.

We proceeded to try to cook our dinner with the family =p

We slept very early tonight because there's basically nothing to do after night falls. Also, we are walking up 5am next morning to go to Cai Be floating market, which is an hour boat ride away.

night :)