2017 - Vietnam & Taiwan (Part 2 - Can Tho)

Monday 17 April

Caught the bus from Saigon to Can Tho. This is where I was robbed (?) / overcharged by the hotel. The cost of the taxi to the bus station was 51k, the bus to Can To was 100k (per the ticket) and the "guide" couldn't have been very much as all he did was collect me at the hotel and accompany me in the Uber to the bus station. The remaining 250k was for what?

The bus was one of the sleeper style ones that you recline on. Probably the most uncomfortable bus ride as I could not sit up straight as the head room does not allow that. Three hours of that was not fun.

The next drama was that the hotel advised me that I had arrived two days early. Cue rummaging around my bag for the paperwork and yep, I had managed to book myself the wrong dates.

Thankfully they were not full and had a room available. This is the second time I have done that (the first time I arrive two days late!) so everything gets double checked now.

My four metre wide hotel.

Afternoon coffee and a walk. Managed to not pay for the coffee and when I realised I had not paid for it, it was a struggle trying to explain to them that I had not paid for the coffee I bought 30 minutes ago and here is some money.

The hotel offered a food tour of the town and so i joined that. A group of guests and an informative guide met up and we toured as follows:
i. A place that did made spring rolls. They gave you all the ingredients for about five or six rolls, the rice paper, the meat, vast amounts of veges, sauces etc. All for $3. Very nice, especially with cold beer.

ii. A place that did deep fried pork buns with accompanying veges and sauce. Very nice, but no beer.

iii. A street side place that did clay pot dishes. The eggplant one was very nice but the beef on was less so.

iv. A stand that did sticky rice as a dessert. Not my thing but the others liked it.

Street lights.

More street lights.

Tuesday 18 April

A very early start for the floating market tour. Can Tho is situated on one of the many branches of the Mekong River and thus most things happen on or about the river. Early each morning, boat loads of fruit and vegetables come down the river from the farms and are sold in the floating market.

Somehow I ended up with a guide (the same guy as the previous night) and a boat to myself.

The boats waiting for the tourists.

My boat.

Transport up and down the river.

The traditional way of moving freight up and down the river.

More trading on the river.

Selling fruit to tourists.

Potatoes for sale.

A great portrait of a trader.

We also went down a side canal that lead to a rice noodle factory. Quite interesting and a bit of a walk.

A rather grubby side canal.

Making rice noodles.

Making rice noodles.

We were back in town by 9:30am.

The rest of the day was very hot so stayed inside, pork noodle soup for lunch, an afternoon nap, and back to the spring roll place for dinner and cold beer.

Wednesday 19 April

Caught an early bus back to HCMC (a proper bus this time, much more comfortable).

Taxi to the airport. He was very slow and got lost. There were lots of road works near the airport but he started going around in circles (not deliberately, just could not see the sign posts). We got there eventually and I knocked about 30k off the meter for the getting lost.

It is flat as far as the eye can see.

Hotel review
The Hotel Xoai was clean, tidy and very friendly. Breakfast was almost non existent, help yourself to some toast and jam.