SE Asia XXXI - Pleased to meet you

The Mekong Delta is a great introduction to Vietnam. It is busy, bright, and colourful. When you cross the border into Vietnam from Cambodia the contrast is huge. I've not seen rivers so full of commerce and trade in Laos or Cambodia, or Thailand for that matter. There are alot more people and there are alot more people out on the water. The Mekong Delta is an excellent place to travel around because of the transport connections. Wherever I was there seemed to be minibuses leaving regularly to all corners of the Delta.

Cahu Doc was my favourite spot in the Mekong Delta. It is a smaller town than Can Tho and it is a bit more off the tourist radar so there are fewer visitors. There are some good places to eat and it is easy to get around. Chau Doc is similar to Cambodian as it is centred around a market. Chau Doc's streets are narrow and there is alot of traffic. It does have a charm. There is the odd French building hidden amongst the cake towers. The people are friendly and appear to be pleased to see you. While you see Khmer faces, the change in the way people look is noticeable and much more noticebale than crossing from Thailand to Laos or Laos to Cambodia.I stayed at Vinh Phuoc Hotel in Chau Doc, where a fan twin room was $7, with hot shower ensuite. The staff were quite friendly and helpful. I did a trip out to the floating houses and Cham village, with a woman rowing the boat standing up and her two children joining us. It was a nice way to see the community. I paid a somewhat inflat $5 for the hour and a half trip. I also messed up on negotiating a moto to Sam Mountain and paid 40,000VND for a trip that could be done by public bus for 3,000VND. Sam Mountain is a Vietnamese tourist destination. There are lots of Buddhist shrines in gaudy colours. Bars line the path down the 'mountain' and are filled to the brim with hammocks. The view from the top is good if a bit hazy. It is amazing just how flat the area is, although not surprising considering this is a river delta. The Vietnamese were most surprised to see more on their bus back into town. I pulled out my phrasebook and it was leafed through with great interest.

From Chau Doc I went to Ha Tien by bus, the journey took three hours. I arrived at the bus station early and there were three locals on board. They were most surprised to see a westerner getting onboard. They took a keen interest in me and merrily chatted to me in Vietnamese even though I couldn't understand a word of what they were saying. I got my phrasebook out and they had a flick through and asked me some questions. I then became something of a zoo exhibit as they seemed to discuss me. The women were none too impressed by my stubbily face. The bus was almost full once we pulled out of the station only to stop outside the station to pick up an extended Cambodian family. I was squeezed next to a young Cambodian guy who managed to get through half a pack of cigarettes in the short time he was on the bus.

I arrived in Ha Tien to be greeted by the moto mafifa. It turned out the bus station had been moved and was now further away from town. I refused all motos and walked to town, it was only a 15 minute walk, but I was shadowed by a moto driver the whole way. I managed to drop the tail and found Tu Anh Hotel. I had a double hot shower ensuite, air-conditioning, and TV for $10. The staff were a bit strange. When I came back in the evening I was in my room and they came knocking on the door and searched around my room. I'm not sure what they thought I could have smuggled in considering I walked passed them to get in and collected my key from them. I wasn't hugely impressed by Ha Tien the town. There is alot of building work going on and there aren't many people around in the middle of the day. I was hanging around in a cafe poking some awful food when a Vietnamese guy sat down at my table. I'm always a bit dubious at such interruptions because so many times they turn out to be trying to sell you something. Unsurprisingly he was trying to sell me something, a moto tour. I didn't want to hang around Ha Tien for the afternoon and the prices he quoted were pretty good.

I went off with Mr Trinh Ngoc The (0918 574 780 trinhngocthe2000@yahoo.com) for an afternoon trip to Thach Dong Cave Pagoda and Mui Nai beach for 40,000. It was a very relaxing afternoon. The scenery is beautiful and there is little traffic. Green rice paddies line the roads and water buffalos plod nonchalantly around. The road back from Mui Nai along the coast is especially beautiful. History is not far away. Inside the Thatch Dong Cave Pagoda is the Stele of Hatred which commemorates the massacre by the Khmer Rouge of 130 people here on 14 March 1978. Along the coast road is a large cemtery for Vietnamese troops who died in Cambodia. Mr Trinh was a good guide and very chatty.

The next day Mr Trinh took me to Hon Chong the next day for 50,000 VND. There are no buses from Ha Tien to Hon Chong. The journey to Hon Chong is quite pretty apart from the cement factories.While the afternoon trip from Ha Tien was a very relaxed affair the morning trip to Hon Chong was quite the opposite. Mr Trinh was on a mission to get there as quickly as possible. We roared off to Hon Chong. The helmet he gave me swung around on my head, so with one hand I had to hold it in place while with the other I held on for grim life. Every time I got a moto in Vietnam they always gave me a helmet to wear, whether that helmet fitted was another matter. I often wore helmets Laurel and Hardy style perched on top of my head. Normally you don't need to hold on to the back bar when travelling by moto but Mr Trinh was flying over bridges and bouncing his way across the pot holes. We rounded one bend to be confronted by a truck and bus coming towards us head on. I closed my eyes. We managed to get by unscathed apart from a shower of gravel.

Hon Chong is a picturesque spot on the coast. The town isn't very big and what there is is spread along the two beaches. There were no other westerners around. The only real sign of activity was around Chua Hang Grotto with hordes of Vietnamese tourists. There is a great restaurant overlooking one of the bays at Hon Trem Guesthouse. The food is excellent and the view over the bay is beautiful. I was staying at Huong Bien Guesthouse, the cheapest guesthouse in town. For $8 I got a fan twin room with cold ensuite. It was alittle bit dodgy but I thought it was OK. The family who ran it were quite friendly apart from the manager who was way too friendly and fake. Sure enough when i returned in the evening and confirmed that I would be leaving tomorrow she turned nasty (even though I had said I would when I arrived). My room had become distinctly less appealling in the intervening hours aswell. The room was like sauna. There were no screens so I couldn't open the windows. There were already lots of mosquitos to keep me company. The hordes of Vietnamese tourists had all descended upon Huong Bien Guesthouse for the night. I asked the manager what time the bus to Rach Gia was and she said 5am. I'm pretty sure there were later ones and I thought she told me this time to spite me. I got up at 5am and the bus didn't come past until 5.30am. I sat with some locals in the meantime, one of whom who spoke broken English implied there were later buses.

The bus got about 20 minutes down the road while picking up parcel after parcel. The conductor came to me and summarily demanded 100,000VND. I hadn't been in Vietnam long but I knew this was far too much. I refused. He justified the price due to my bag being on the seat next to me, something he told me to bring on board with me. I refused and paid him 50,000VND. It took 3 hours to reach Rach Gia. I didn't hang around. I caught a minibus to Can Tho. The Mekong Delta is an excellent place to travel around because of the transport connections. Wherever I was there seemed to be minibuses leaving regularly to all corners of the Delta, apart from Hon Chong. It was another two and a half hours and 47,000VND to Can Tho. There was a twelve year old policeman sitting next to me who was quite chatty. The road was very bumpy. I was on an official minibus run by Mai Linh, a company who run taxis and minibuses throughout Vietnam. Mai Linh minibuses are quite a high standard but there is still very little room when they are full. Luckily there were only 5 people on the minibus so we could spread out.

I arrived in Can Tho to discover I was at the bus station 8kms from town. I only discovered this after walking 8kms to town. Can Thoi is a big busy town. It is quite charming along the riverfront. There is of course lots of activity in the water. A great place to watch it all is from a cafe on top of the ferry ticket office. A friendly family run it and the dad seems to spend most of his time watching whats going on on the water aswell. There are lots of boats heading off to different corners of the Delta. The small ferry boats looked OK but they were absolutely packed to the rafters and didn't look like a comfortable way to travel. I came to Can Tho to visit the floating markets. I went to Cai Rang and Phong Dien floating markets. I did this independently. I talked to a moto driver, or rather gestured, and we agreed on 100,000VND on a round trip to visit both market including waiting time. Gestures can convey alot, combined with a trusty phrasebook. We went to Cai Rang first and I hired a boat to go out into the market. It was more tricky than I imagined. Most people hire a boat in Can Tho but this takes longer and you don't get to Phong Dien in time for the market. The prices at Cai Rang were higher than from Can Tho and I eventually found one for 70,000VND for an hour. I got the impression that these guys did not normally take tourists out and that I was doing them a favour. They sat me in their boat and pushed me down the muddy bank. Once in the water the woman paddled me around the barges and boats. Cai Rang is huge, there are lots of big barges piled high with different fruit and vegetables. In between the big boats and barges were small boats buying the produce as well as ones selling snacks and drinks. After an hour I tried to get my paddler to take me back, it took a few attempts but she eventually did. Once she did I had to climb over a few boats and on to a pier. I gave her 70,000VND and then she started demanding more money. I gave her 10,000VND but was very annoyed. In paying 70,000VND I already felt like I was being charitable. Phong Dien is a much smaller place and the market is much smaller. In many ways it is more attractive. I didn't feel the need to go out on the water and instead watched the proceedings over a cafe sua da (iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk). When my moto driver took me back to Can Tho he tried to demand more money from me. I laughed at him, and paid him the 100,000VND we had agreed to. I had not come across people suddenly demanding more money in the reast of South East Asia. I had paid too much and been ripped off but at least I had done so in agreement. To demand more money after the event struck me as underhand.

I had assumed oprganising the trip from Can Tho independently would be cheaper than going through an agent. Can Tho had its own Del Boy who greeted me at Hien II Guesthouse. The guesthouse was surprisingly nice. The room was small but I had a fan double and hot ensuite for $7. Del Boy then proceeded to sell me a huge tour which I had no interest in doing. I managed to lose him but kept bumping into him around town. He seemed to appear out of every alleyway, reminding me of my promise to think about his tour. As it was the shorter tour that I did would have been cheaper with him then organising it myself, assuming no hidden charges appeared. I didn't see Del Boy around Hien II for the next couple of days. I don't think he works there, I think he just goes from guesthouse to guesthosue trying to sell his tours.

I left Can Tho for Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon). I was on another minibus which was packed. I tried to get the a seat with legroom but the guy putting people in the bus wasn't happy with me sitting there. I eventually persuaded a small man to take my seat so that I could have some space. I do find that the Vietnamese like their power and if they tell you to sit somewhere then they will not give in. Maybe this is true of people in general or it could be to do with loss of face in Asian culture. I have assigned you a seat you will sit in the seat. The journey was as life threatening as ever as we raced to HCMC. It was made more hazardous by the BO fumes being emitted by the old woman sitting infront of me. I arrived at Mien Tay bus station in HCMC, the moto mafia descended and I found a driver who would take me for 50,000VND to Co Giang.