The Mekong Delta was great. In parts, it was almost as good as Ha Giang. Almost.
The plan is was follows:
- Ben Tre
- Tra Vinh
- Ca Mau
- Phu Quoc island.
What actually happened was:
- Ben Tre
- Tra Vinh
- Rach Gia
- Ha Tien,
I got to Ben Tre by getting a bus from Saigon. The bus left from the Mien Tay bus station, but I had to get there via a local bus, which left from a bus station just outside my hotel. It was in the main backpacker district, but I hadn’t thought to get a bus from there until the owner of my hotel pointed it out. Once there, I managed to communicate to the security guards that I wanted to go to Mien Tay and one of them walked me over to what they thought was the next bus which was leaving. I got on it and eventually the driver turned up and we set off for Mien Tay.
Once there, I walked around for a bit and found two bus counters which were offering lifts to Ben Tre. One was slightly slower, cheaper and left in 1.5 hours and the other was faster, slightly more expensive and left in 5 minutes. I went for the latter one and the woman who sold me the ticket told me to walk outside the bus station. There I wandered around until some bloke with a mobile phone grabbed me and told me to wait on the other side of the street. We crossed over and not long after putting my bags down, a bus turned up and the same bloke helped get me on it. I sat next to a German guy and we made occasional small-talk until we arrive in Ben Tre.
Being the only foreigners, the German, his girlfriend and I shared a taxi to the nearest hotel. We shared the cost and ended up staying in the same hotel, despite taking different approaches to finding one. Later the same day I hired a moped and drove around the surrounding countryside, which was excellent.
I took the motorbike and drove along a main road until I found something interesting or that I liked the look of. I went past a road which looked good, so I turned round, went back and found a toll-booth where two or three women were collecting fares and opening barriers for people. I got my books out and a map and attempted to find out exactly where we were, but it was very hard work and eventually gave up and they let me through the barrier for free. I drove down some tiny dirt roads through equally tiny villages, with people saying hello and not really knowing what to do when I went past. I eventually found a small village and attempted to find out where I was. After emerging from a building and setting off again on my bike, someone pointed out that I still had the stand down (a regular occurrence) and I stopped to fix it. I caught up with this person and they invited me to have tea in their house, which I agreed to. The name of the person was Vu and him and his family ran a company selling pig food. He was studying IT and wanted to go and work in Japan, but in the meantime was having to juggle studying and work. I took the tea, sweets and star-fruit that he offered me and got back to my hotel before it got dark.
The next day I did exactly the same thing, as it was that good. I took a different bridge on the map and ended up somewhere completely different, aiming to get on to the small island of Cu Lao Oc. I eventually found the ferry crossing and got as far as I could on the island before having to turn back. I got back to the hotel and got the motorbike, bus, ferry and motorbike to Tra Vinh. This journey I enjoyed immensely, as it was very complicated and it all went to plan. The scenery was amazing and I got driven from the ferry terminal to Tra Vinh as the sun was going down.
Once in Tra Vinh, I walked around for a bit until I found a hotel. I went for one with a fan and no air-conditioning, as it was the only one with any real atmosphere and it also happened to be the cheapest. The fan didn’t work and so I got one sat on a platic chair, but it was good enough! The next day I wandered around, until deciding that I was going to try and get to Can Tho, as the original plan of going to Ca Mau was going to mean spending too much time travelling. Unfortunately, by the time I got to the bus station all of the buses had left and I had to go back to the hotel empty-handed. I decided to get up early and go for a 06:50 bus instead.
Once in Rach Gia, I actually got dropped in Rach Soi, which is 7 Km from Rach Gia, which wasn’t what was advertised. As this was a fairly regular occurrence, I didn’t protest too much and managed to find a moto driver who would take me to the ferry terminal for a reasonable sum. I had mixed information, some which was saying that the boats left for Phu Quoc island at 13:00, others which said 13:30. We got to the ferry terminal at 13:05 and it was clear that all the boats had left. I accepted that I wasn’t going to be getting to Phu Quoc and went and found a hotel instead.
The next day, having had my plans for Phu Quoc shattered, I decided to get a bus to Ha Tien, the closest city to the border with Cambodia. I went to the bus station earlier that day, so knew how much the bus tickets cost and so managed to get the motorbike taxi and the bus ticket for the actual cost of what they were worth. I got to Ha Tien and got accosted by about two motorbike taxi drivers, one of which was actually quite friendly and I ended up talking to. He dropped me in a convenient place in town and I ended up calling him the next day for a lift to Kep.