Mekong Delta - An Unguided Tour

8 - 9 March 2015

After an amazing tour of Can Tho with Susan we are now going off on our own for a couple of days in the Mekong.  This will be one of our most adventurous trips so far since we are going to an area with very little tourists meaning little to no people will be able to speak English.  We said goodbye to our kite...yes it was still there and went to the pier to catch our boat to Ca Mau:

Vender selling to people on the boat before taking off.

The inside of the boat wasn't too bad with cushions on the seat and the back.  We think the trip is about 5 hours, but we don't know for sure since no one speaks English.

I don't know how fast the boat went, but it left a pretty good wake:

After about 3 hours on the boat the ticket guy came to us and said "Sông Dốc" and we said no..."Ca Mau".  He said "Ca Mau" and we nodded.  He said "Sông Dốc" and we shook our heads no.  He then looked troubled as did the other passengers around us.  I then pulled out our map and noticed that Ca Mau really isn't on the way from Can Tho (where we left from) to Sông Dốc.  Now what?!?  Sông Dốc is way down on the tip of the Mekong Delta and looked way out of the way from where we needed to go.  

After much thought, I wrote down on a paper:

8/3/15 Táu ==> Ca Mau
9/3/15 Táu ==> Rach Gia

Meaning today's date we take Táu (Boat) to Ca Mau and tomorrow we take boat to Rach Gia.  He then wrote down:

9/3/15 Táu Sông Dốc ==> Rach Gia 6h20'

Ahhh...got it.  We can take a boat tomorrow from Sông Dốc to Rach Gia leaving at 6:20 AM tomorrow morning.

We pulled into Sông Dốc around 5:30 PM, after only a 4 hour ride.

"Seafood Processing Factories Sông Dốc"

Now the hard part...to find a hotel.  We started walking down the one main street that looked more like an alley as the sun was setting fast.

As we were walking people stopped and stared.  Adults ran into the shops and grabbed their kids to see us walking down the street.  After almost 4 months of traveling we were used to children stopping and looking at us, but in this town the adults stopped and looked as well.  It was a bit dangerous as people driving motorbikes were steering right at us as they were staring at us....luckily they slowed down to a crawl to get a really good look at us.  I just kept waving and saying hello as Tim felt more and more uncomfortable.  We must have been the first white people that have visited this town in like forever!

We finally found a hotel and they were so, so excited to have guests.  Through pointing and nodding we picked the most expensive room in the hotel for 250,000 Dong ($12 USD) and then the conversation got more difficult. They kept saying "ho chi-ow" and we didn't understand and they kept saying "ho chi-ow" and we still didn't understand.  They asked us to sit and he got on the phone, obviously trying to find someone that spoke English. Finally after a couple of minutes I thought...they probably want our passports.  Yes..that was what it was.  I don't know why we didn't realize it sooner since we always have to show our passports when we check into hotels.  Anyway, we gave our passports, dropped our bags in the room, and went out looking for something to eat.

After walking around a while..and getting stared at a lot...we finally had to settle for a street-side soup stand.  We got our soup and then some teenager, who wasn't 100% there, kneeled down by our table and stared at us as we ate.  The shopkeep must have thought it was OK since they let him just sit there.  Oh well...file this away as quite an experience!

We returned to the hotel and went to bed since we had to be at the pier around 6:00 AM.  We definitely didn't want to miss our boat and stay another day in this town that just keeps staring at us.

The next morning we walked to the pier and it was still pretty dark. The only good thing is that people couldn't see us to stare:

We arrived at the pier with plenty of time to take in the sunrise:

We boarded the boat which was pretty much the same as the boat yesterday except without padding on the backrest, but it was still comfortable enough and there was plenty of room.  We left right on time and then went about 100 yards and stopped to get a fresh shrimp loaded on top of the boat:

Interesting way to pack fresh shrimp

Finally we were off:

There were a couple of interesting passengers onboard with us.  Check out this kids jacket...his rank is Senior Airman in the US Air Force, and this woman brought her pet bear:

We both really enjoyed the boat rides where we got a feel for what life is like in the Mekong both by the people getting on and off the boat and by the scenery looking outside the boat.  These people really does live the River Life.

Intersection

Leaving a wake in a narrow section of river

At 11:00 AM we arrived in Rach Gia.  We decided to walk to the 2 miles to the area we wanted to go since we were sitting in the boat for almost 5 hours.  As soon as went ashore we were bombarded with taxi and motorbike drivers that wanted to take us to town.  We tried to tell them we were walking and they all looked at us like we were crazy, but walk we did.  After almost 1 hour...it was very hot and we had our bags on our back...we arrived at the pier that tomorrow's ferry takes off from.  We actually did try to get on the ferry today, but it was sold out, so we checked into the first hotel we saw then went off looking for lunch.  We saw what looked like a supermarket so went inside and found some fast food.  I had fish and Tim had chicken.  We then found a food mall upstairs that had an ice cream stand.  Tim was very happy to get a 3,000 Dong ($0.14 USD) ice cream cone...he actually had 3!

After lunch we went back to the hotel to rest since we woke up early and there really wasn't anything else to do in this town.  Later we left the room to find dinner which wasn't too easy.  Just as we were going to give up and buy some cookie and chips at a store we came across a place that made vegetarian soup, so we got a couple of bowls...which were really very good, and headed back to the hotel. 

Tomorrow we head the island of Phu Quoc for 4 days of R&R...that's rest and relaxation for you non-military types...before we head back to the US.