Journey to Can Tho

Last saturday we left a very rainy Danang and headed south. We landed in a sunny and steamy Saigon where we loaded onto a bus and headed further south into the Mekong Delta region and the city of Can Tho.

It was about 3 1/2 hours travel time...plus an hour at a really nice "happy stop" where we had an excellent lunch under a giant coconut frond lined patio. Happy stops are what the vietnamese called rest stops...some are more happy than others. This one had gardens, a small market and clean toilets. The drive was long mainly becuase there is so much traffic. It used to be longer before the austrailians built a beautiful bridge over the upper mekong river. The japanese are currently building a bridge over the lower mekong but it isn't finished so we needed to get across the river to can tho. The line for the ferry was about 2 hours so our guide called the hotel and they sent two small boats and picked us up essentially on the riverbank...the bus with luggage followed later. Very fun, very interesting. We ended up happy that the ferry line was so long. Our hotel had its own dock and we entered these beautiful gardens right from the boat. More on the victoria can tho later.

It's later!! We took a great water trip while in the Mekong. We boarded two motorized, canopied long boats and traveled to the morning market in Can Tho and then onto other areas within the warren of rivers and canals of the Mekong area. We visited a brick making factory (very interesting) and a plant nursery where we tasted some Vietnamese moonshine (they said it was rice wine...hmmm...that was some potent rice wine) and listened to traditional vietnamese folk songs. It was a lovely trip. Photos (many of them) are up on my flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/abaesel/collections/72157609130626360/.

we also visited a Chinese Pagoda in Can Tho and the Can Tho Museum which I think was the best museum we saw in Vietnam at least in depicting the history and lives of Vietnamese people.

And then it was time to just relax. We had a lovely afternoon by the cobalt blue pool at the Victoria Can Tho Hotel followed by massages...oh baby! Had pizza and pineapple juice for lunch at the pool (or was that dinner).

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