January 25th - To the Mekong

Our alarm goes off at 06.15 and reminds us that we are working to somebody else's schedule again. Shower, finish packing, quick breakfast, checkout and on parade with luggage at 07.45. Nobody has absconded but the total pile of luggage appears to have grown. Yesterday must have been a good day for traders at the Bhen Tahn market. Once again one item of our luggage stays on the pavement until everything else has been loaded. Nobody is willing to get on the coach until they see their bags onboard so D is last to get on.

The drive out of Saigon is a crawl between the motorbikes, punctuated by traffic lights and badly parked trucks. After about forty five minutes we reach the edge of the city and the start of the Expressway that leads out to the Mekong Delta. This benefits from a two wheeler ban and we make good progress. R has taken travel sickness pills and is totally zonked out, D gets the blog posts up to date. After twelve days 1.6 Gb of the 20 Gb of data purchased has been used. We will have to start streaming movies to make sure that we don't waste it.

There is a brief pause at a service area where the sound system is playing dodgy cover versions of the Shadows greatest hits. D reckons that he could make a better job of Apache. Back on the road we have run out of Expressway and are back on the regular highway with its continuous ribbon development. Lumbering trucks and motorcyclists with a death wish make progress tortuous. Our driver moves his head from side to side continuously trying to make sure that he misses nothing in his mirrors.  We pass over a large suspension bridge that crosses one of the larger arms of the Mekong River. We are told that it was built by Australians. Half an hour later we cross an even bigger bridge built by the Japanese. From the span we can see the city of Can Tho which is our immediate destination.

The  bus pulls up in some kind of function/entertainment complex by the river. A squad of young men clad in grey tee shirts watch our coach eagerly. We are asked to check that our bags are unloaded from the coach and then move to the boat. For once ours appears quickly and we follow the guide onto a rather smart looking cruiser called the Mekong Eyes Explorer, and up onto the foredeck where we are invited to take a seat and a welcome drink. One of the crew gives us a briefing and then starts to hand out room keys as the boat gets under way. R gets in quickly to bag a double rather than the twin bedded rooms that we have had so far. This turns out to be an inspired move as we are allocated what is described as a suite, with a spacious bedroom incorporating a window seat, a good sized bathroom and a private balcony.  A total winner for the next three nights.

Rivers and creeks are clearly a key part of the transport system around here. There are other cruisers including some built in an older style. Our crew tell us the boat we are on has better facilities. Every mile or so there seems to be a small ferry, large enough for foot passengers and two wheelers, that connects the two banks. The local boats traditionally have two eyes painted on the bow and there are lots of less traditional vessels such as dredgers and large barges laden high with shipping containers.

The grey army deliver our luggage and then it is time for lunch. This involves more do it yourself spring rolls followed by chicken cooked in honey. We need a short snooze to recover from this and prepare ourselves for the afternoon's activity which is a village walk. The boat goes nose in to the bank of the river and the crew then rig up a rather shoogly gangplank above the murky Mekong. Much hilarity ensues as we cross onto terra firma. We start by visiting a small local market. Business is almost done for the day but a few traders are still in situ. The less well travelled of our fellow passengers recoil from one of the stalls with its bowls of live fish and move quickly past the man selling dried fish.

If they thought that looked pretty revolting there is more to come. Dien shows us a bucket full of squirming grubs, about the thickness of a finger. These are a pest that bores into coconut trees with fatal consequences for the tree. Somewhere along the line the locals have developed a taste for these, eating them live and raw in a special sauce. Our walk continues along a narrow track by the riverside, passing various dwellings from bamboo shacks to a brickbuilt mansion. We see all sorts of fruit trees including banana, papaya, rose apple, coconut, kumquat and pomelo. The big earner in these parts is rice and we see a big field, just starting to turn yellow which will be ready to harvest in a week's time.

Back on the boat it is time for a rice wine cocktail before getting ready for dinner. Tonight is Burns Night but there is no haggis. Instead we get spring rolls and delicious sea bass followed by chocolate cake. The bar prices are a bit eye watering so we retire to our suite for a nightcap.