Mekong- Saigon

Vietnam- Mekong Delta followed by Saigon to Hanoi

The trip around the Mekong Delta was bought as it was actually the cheapest way of getting to Vietnam from Phnom Phen; the river and delta landscape was an added bonus. The towns we visited seemed to all merge into one as we headed up from the river to Saigon by bouncy bus. Getting into Saigon was great- the city for all of its reputation was no where near as seedy as Bangkok or even Phnom Phen, but it was certainly lively.

We arrived in the tourist section and went hunting for a place to stay and tickets to Hanoi by train. We found a great room in a place called Godmother which I would again recommend as a cheap, relatively clean and safe place with free wifi and entertainment. Our room overlooked the bar but they kindly turned down the music at midnight every night without fail. We think this was because of the tiny old lady who owns the place! Jen reckons that she was a spy in the Cambodian war & that she can secretly karate chop someone’s head if they so much as give the wrong glance – luckily we were in her good books, all receiving wooden keyrings as a gift! They also do some great pancakes with honey for breakfast by the way.

The Tet New Year celebrations were in full force, with food stalls in the flower markets giving us plenty of opportunity to spend our Dongs en masse with Crocodile, Beef and Pork skewers, Fried rice, vermicelli salads and more on offer. Naturally, we had to eat our way through the selection.

Crossing through the city on foot meant we got a good feel of the city- mad traffic which is very similar to that in Cairo- always moving (replace cars in Egypt for scooters in Vietnam) which makes crossing the road a bit of a game of chicken, as a gang of five we seemed to have enough presence to cross quite easily though. I presume it’s because knocking over five people would really damage their cars/scooters.

Coming back to trains and travel. Hadn’t really considered the effect that the Chinese New Year would have on our plans. Apparently everyone wants to be somewhere else for the celebrations and tickets for the trains (4 per day) are snapped up at least four months in advance!!! So we had to look for alternatives which brought us to the bus option. I hate bus travel. Sleeper buses – hmm new concept for my travelling.

So we booked five beds on a sleeper bus which was supposed to travel non-stop or so our ticket said to Hanoi in 42 hours. Not so it seems, and definitely for the better. To our horror, we were all put on the back seat lined up like 5 lemmings with no space in between and not enough room to sit upright. Jen got a case of the hysterical giggles and lots of jokes came out along the lines of imitating drinking cups of tea upside down and ‘don’t worry folks, only 41 hours to go’ etc. To our surprise, the bus stopped in the morning around 250 miles north of Hanoi in a sea side city called Nha Trang which has a great beach with a lovely promenade behind it. The city is a stark contrast to any other sea side resort we’d been to so far and with the bay shimmering turquoise blue and waves crashing onshore we decided it was high time to do sweet fa and sit on the beach all day, the city isn’t too badly plagued by touts. You want Sunglasses? … Pineapple, Pomelo, Mango? …. And then an 8 year old thrusts a basket of what can best be described as “stuff” in your face; “You BUY”. Sadly no suncream so we very kindly tell her to go away but this is refused so we do maths problems with her, play football shuttlecock and she keeps us entertained. Finally, she leaves and go’s off to hassle others, but returns for more YOU BUY demands later in the afternoon. It’s depressing that little girls are selling crap on the beach and it happens all over the world.

Moving on- our bus (a much nicer bus with individual seats – phew) left at 6, well almost...more like 8 and we find our way enroute to Hoi An where the schedule supposes an hour’s break. From there it’s on to Hue where we change coaches to Hanoi I think…

(MT)