Well here we are in the most gorgeous town, l think we have fallen in love with it! So relaxed, clean and friendly.
When first planning to come to Can Tho a lot of people said it was best done on a tour from Saigon, l could not understand this? And all info on the net also lead me to believe it was difficult to do this part on your own? How strange and how sad as a lot of people would get sucked into this and it was so easy and not a drama.
We booked our bus tickets from the tour desk at the Duc Vuong and insisted on a Mai Linh bus as l have been told they are the best. Most certainly was! $12 each and that included a bottle of water and a refreshing towel! A taxi picked us up and took us to bus stop number one and then a short bus trip on a not so good bus to the bus stop no 2 and the lovely bus! A four hour trip to Can tho, we did stop once for half an hour and that was it. Everyone piled off at can tho and it was very obviously the right place, which was my concern that l would not know when to get off. But l think the bus driver also knows who has to get off where as he would zip up and down the bus to get people off at various stops.
Once at the Can Tho bus stop - into the Mai Linh taxi to the Kim Tho hotel and Bruce and Sam are amazed and think l have gone completely mad as this place is not my usual run of the mill accommodation! The bathroom has a shower stall!! Our usual places is just a shower head in the corner of the bathroom and it goes all over the place when you have a shower. We all then realise how stupid it is that we are excited over the bathroom not the actual beds or anything!
Enjoyed a lovely stroll around town and a bite to eat( Although after all the bus snacks we had! we aren't too hungry).
After a restful afternoon we found a lovely place to eat our dinner and enjoy the River. A very fun waiter entertained us with his "G'Day mate" and telling us how weird we speak! The town comes alive at night and all sorts of stalls pop up around the River front.
Day Two in Can tho and we are up early for our boat trip to the floating markets and canals. We have a boat to ourselves and a guide who is a lovely tiny Vietnamese lady and our boat driver is also a very short lady! Actually they are all very tiny!
We head to the markets at 6.30am and our first purchase is coffee! A boat pulls up along side of us and sells us hot coffee's, we then buy a whole pineapple for about 48 cents Aust, the lady skins it and cuts it into four lovely pieces for us, why can't we have this service at home and why doesn't a pineapple taste this good! Oh l know, it sits in cold storage for weeks before we get it! No brown in the middle pineapples here!
Fruit and veges being sold this morning are pumpkins, cabbage, pineapples, watermelons, sweet potatoes and a few other variety of potatoes,some crabs,lots of green veges which our guide says is "Salad", noodles are also prepared and cooked on little boats that come along side to sell. Its all very interesting and lots of movement and plenty of tourist boast as well but all very organised and fun. But l think if you really want to see more action you would need to be up very early, much earlier than we are, the guide tells me about 4.30 to 5am.
Visit a noodle factory and most noodles in this part of Vietnam are rice noodles! Unless you get the Maggi/instant variety. But if getting fresh noodles they are mostly rice noodles. To get to the noodle factory/yard?? we walk through a village area as normally they would pull up in front of the place in the boat but there is a dirty big barge stuck in the canal!!! There is also a group of older women standing, watching and laughing, Sam thinks that they are perving on the boat crew and builders and its really Jenny and I!!! Such harsh words!
Back on the boat and off to the canals and see all the funny bridges and a monkey bridge which is really just poles strung across the river! Lots of waving kids, although not so many as when l was first here 8 years ago, too many tourists now!
Was a lovely morning on the River and canals, our guide and boat driver were lovely and the boat driver made us grass hoppers and rings out of palm fronds.
I think a restful afternoon will be in order and then tomorrow we actually fly off to Phu Quoc Island. Its only a short flight of about 45 minutes from Can tho to PQ, but we have to be at the Airport 2 hours before hand!!!! Painful! And l doubt its much of an airport, o h well the destination will be worth it....
