Mekong Delta – Năm Căn

24 June

An early morning and lots of travel.  Up at 4am, 20 mins to the airport, 30 mins getting through security, 10 minutes on the bus to the plane, 40 mins flying, and I was finally in the Mekong Delta, at Rach Gia.   I had hoped to be able to get a boat to Cà Mau, but it seems they do not run anymore so I ended up on a minibus.  It was an interesting (although bumpy) journey.  For some reason we stopped for food and a break about 5 mins into the trip, and there were quite a few stops to put ck up and drop off extra passengers.   It was interesting to see the area, including roadside sales of huge piles of pineapples, coconuts, and unidentifiable things in jars.  The last part of my journey to the hotel was on the back of a motorbike.

It is definitely not a big tourist area – I have not seen another non-asian person since I got on the plane.  People mostly seem very helpful and friendly though, much more than in the tourist areas.

I arrived at about 12:30, much earlier than I had expected, and I was able to book into an afternoon tour, which was with a bunch of very cheerful Vietnamese, who were a lot of fun.  Two of them spoke English which was very helpful.  We went out on a boat, and visited a local home and were shown how they catch crab and shrimp.  We then went out to a bird sanctuary, were there were a lot of birds and also a lot of rain, so by the time we got back we were all quite wet.

I was happy to be able to have a shower, dry off and have some dinner before bed.