Mekong Delta

Arghhh, I should have wrote this first!
vietnam travel
But I don't know how to slot this entry in front! *faint*

When you look at the map, Mekong Delta is SO big. In Vietnamese, Mekong means Cuu Long, which means Nine Dragons, as the river branches into nine mouths that empty into the sea.

I printed my Mekong Delta map off ReidOn Travel's website. To travel from HCMC to Ha Tien or Chau Doc in the delta will take up at least half of a day. Thus, we need to plan our route carefully and to decide how much time we want to spend at each place.

After reading through countless blogs online, I thought I'll just concentrate on two or three places in the Mekong Delta. In the end, M and I narrowed down our choices to Chau Doc, Vinh Long and possibly My Tho. It's still considered very ambitious because we do not have a private vehicle. Anyway, we decided to play by ear =P We'll just go wherever the bus can go and sleep wherever we can sleep and makes the best out of it. Sounds super exciting right? I'm super excited the night before that I can't sleep!

Frankly, there's SO many places I've not been to........but do I have to cover everything... after this trip, I think I'll still go back to Chau Doc again if I have the chance and maybe explore a slightly different route...

Day Two: Chau Doc

We slept our fill this morning. The sun rays poured in from the balcony...

Looking out from the balcony, the opposite market is busting with activities.. you can hear frequent horning of the motorbikes, bicycles, etc. I'm glad we started crossing Vietnam roads from the Mekong Delta area, its not as hectic as HCMC! Anyway, after 8 days of experience of crossing roads in Vietnam, I dare say its not as daunting!

M and I explored the local market and hunt for our breakfast. We took our time to walk through the different lanes, occasionally taking pictures, buying stuff. The locals like to smile a lot. Sometimes i just need to point to my cam and smile brightly at them and they'll just nod their head and smile back.

I don't know what to call my breakfast. Its a different kind of texture of rice vermicelli with super-sumptous barbecued pork and their sauce! I love it! Then spring roll made with their rice paper...not sure what's the filling inside, but its delicious too! aww.. I'm missing the food there now :( $40,000 dong easily feeds both of us.. thats like around usd $2.40 only.


We went on to explore the various streets from our hotel and try to walk to the main bus station in Chau Doc. On the way, we took pictures as usual, tried the local snacks/ drinks if they look interesting enough =p This is my kind of holiday! We even went in a cafe/pub for coconut drinks. The place is busting with Vietnamese pop songs, complete with their MV. Interesting...

This is a kind of sweet and sour fish soup, called canh chua. The fish meat is very fresh and the whole pot is full of different kinds of vegetables. Refreshing and unique. They served us in a hotpot, quite big for the two of us.
Anyway, we finally reached the bus station. It's not really a long way. The bus station is about 2-3 km from the town center. We just follow Le Loi road (towards river side) and walk along. Along the way, we passed by many shophouses, a church, and of course the most expensive hotel in Chau Doc: Victoria Chau Doc. We went in to take a peep too :p

vietnam travel
We wanted to look for a branch of Mai Linh Bus company because its one of the company with express buses. However, they only have buses running from Chau Doc to Can Tho or to HCMC, with hourly departures. Thus we bought our bus tickets to Vinh Long town (in Vinh Long province) from some other local bus company for $100,000 dong per pax. There's only one bus a day to Vinh Long and it runs at 6am! hahaha. I'll tell you more about my bus ride on another post :p

Day One: HCMC, Chau Doc

Our flight takes off at 7.50am from the budget terminal at Changi Airport. It's really a SIMPLE airport. Outside, there's only HANS to get your drinks, food. After clearing the customs, there's sports connection, mini toons, some other shops and two other eating places inside. Not bad. Was expecting nothing! hahaha.
vietnam travel
Tiger Airplanes are kind of small, but i'm ok. It's only 1h 40mins to HCMC.

We changed a portion of our USD to Vietnamese Dong. The rate is USD $1 to $16,985 dong. I became a millionaire instantly! never seen such BIG notes!

Be careful once you walked out of the airport. The taxi-drivers are vying to get your business. However, to the right, there's a queue of taxis and they seems to 'belong' to the same gang. I showed them an address of the bus company i wanted to go and some are offerring help/ interpretation to the driver. They all charged the same price. It's either usd $12 or $200,000 dong.

Mai Linh Bus
400 Le Hong Phong Street, District 10

Tel 0839292929

M and I arrived at Mai Linh Express Bus company at District 10. It's packed with locals. They are also buying bus tickets. The company has buses going to various provinces in the Mekong Delta and throughout whole of Vietnam. We managed to get our bus tickets for Chau Doc (250km away) at 11am for $110,000 dong each. One driver spoke a bit of english. They took us on a minibus from the office to Mien Tay Bus station, then transferred to another minibus for Chau Doc. The whole journey took about 6h with a toilet break in between. This is consider an express bus already. I read from other sources that it can be a 10h journey! The minibus has AC and numbered seats. It was a tiring ride, mostly because the road conditions aren't exactly good. I find it interesting when the whole bus drove into a ferry to cross the river :) Well, its a novelty for me.

Once we reached the bus station at Chau Doc, a swarm of motorbike taxi drivers surrounded us. We did our research and arrowed on a hotel to try our luck. Some bargaining to get the motorbike drivers (two of them) to pillion the two of us to the hotel for $30,000 dong *total cost.

Trung Nguyen Hotel

86 Bach Dang

The pretty receptionist spoke great english! She smiles very brightly and is very polite. We were lucky they had one room left! We took the last room at the 4th floor for usd $13 a night and went on to climb the flight of stairs.. frankly I'm bashed. The room is small and well-equipped. (AC, hot water, free wifi). Our balcony overlooks the local market.

Something to take note of: In mekong delta, the hotel needs to keep their guests passport. It seems to be the law here. I remembered reading about this somewhere before I came. The receptionist showed me her drawers full of passports so i guess I had no choice too.

After putting down our backpacks and freshen up, we went on to explore a bit of the surroundings and to hunt for our dinner. The location of the hotel is just opposite Cho Chau Doc (which means Chau Doc market). The sun sets pretty early in Vietnam.. around 5plus.. the sky dims.. outside the market, small food stalls were set up. There's Pa Te, different food stuffed into french loaf. Different stall owners came up with their version. Throughout my trip, i had many versions of my french loaves: with quail eggs; with meat balls; with chunks of roast meat; with a kind of paste of intestines stuff; with barbecued pork, etc.

We ate at a small shop near our hotel. Hmm..vegetarian food. The meat is of course not real meat. But their rice vermicelli is very nice! The soup base is sweet and refreshing naturally! I had our first Vietnam coffee (dripping) at this shop too! We spend about $40,000 dong for two mains and one side and coffee.

The time is about 8pm now and its SO dark as if its 10plus back in Singapore. Ok, on to Day Two!

Preparing for the trip

M and I started our preparation about a few weeks back.. can't really remember how early we started and how detailed we started off with. I think we are pretty vague till just one week before departure.

Our budget airtickets fr Tiger Airways are booked several months ago. We decided to fly to HCMC and to concentrate on south vietnam, namely Mekong Delta.

Well, we borrowed lonely planet guides from the library and try to find more information via internet. My idea is to take the hols slowly and relaxingly. If the place is nice, i want to stay one more day, if its bored, i'll just buy a bus ticket and move on to the next destination. I wanted to walk along the streets of vietnam, and have time to sip coffee, observe people + traffic wheezing past me... etc.

My main source of information are from Robert Reid's online vietnam guide. It's great! Of course you have to count in inflation rate for the costs of the buses, hotels, day trips etc. But, most of the information are pretty updated.

From what I gathered from other travel blogs, I've decided to zoom in on Chau Doc, Vinh Long and maybe Ha Tien and My Tho. Then, M and I try to read up a lot on these places: the recommended accommodation, attractions, food, transportation in and out of these places, etc. Then, we allocated a few days to each location.

Oh well, we only have 8 days in Vietnam ie fr 6 -13dec. About a few days before our flight, then we decided to just concentrate on Chau Doc and Vinh Long, maybe a night at My Tho (if we have the time) then the remaining two days at hcmc, before flying back to Singapore.
http://www.vns-travel.com/
All set!

My Son Sanctuary Vietnam

Vietnam tours: My Son Sanctuary, Vietnam is located in the Quang Nam province which is 69 Kilometers south-west of Danang. It was an imperial city during the Champa dynasty, a centre for spirituality and worship between the 4th and the 12th centuries. My Son Santuary, Vietnam has been listed in the World Heritage site as well, for its exemplification of the heights of Cham architectural achievement and hence is one of the top Vietnam tourist attractions. My Son Santuary, Vietnam is a large complex of religious monuments comprised of more than 70 architectural works built by the nobility of the Champa Kingdom deriving their cultural and spiritual influences from Indian Hinduism. Only 25 vestiges remain today as a standing witness to the reign of Chama Dynasty. These are temples and towers connected to each other through complicated red brick design to reflect the divinity of the king.

My Son Vietnam tour

http://www.vns-travel.com/

Dien Bien Phu Vietnam

Vietnam tours: Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam has its place in the minds of the Vietnamese as the battle ground that changed the course of history of the country. The famous battle of Dien Bien Phu was fought in the Dien Bien district of the Lai Chau province and today it has become one of the popular destinations in Vietnam.

Vietnam tour - Dien Bien Phu

http://www.vns-travel.com/

A cheaper way to make a trip to Mui Ne

Thanks to its natural land-scapes and pristine beaches, Mui Ne is a popular destination for international and local tourists who go there to expand their travel itinerary or for a weekend escape from work.

Scattered along the coastline are many resorts offering comfortable and luxury accommodations and other services for tourists to relax during their holidays. And off course, in return for the comfort, vacationers have to pay more money.

However, there is a cheaper, but no less interesting, way to make the trip to Mui Ne for backpackers or travelers on a limited budget.

Bus is the cheapest means of transportation to get there. From HCMC, travelers can buy bus tickets at open-tour operators, such as Sinh Café and Phuong Trang among others. A number of tour providers offering daily tours to Mui Ne have offices located in the heart of the city, on De Tham Street and Pham Ngu Lao Street, with buses usually leaving in the morning.

With tickets costing from VND60,000 to VND65,000 (US$3.8) each, travelers will make their journey in a 45-seat, air conditioned bus. In addition, the ticket includes a bottle of pure water, a paper tissue and a bag of coconut.



Travelers get on a bus at Mui Ne Resort to return to HCMC



For reasons of safety, the driver will often keep the bus running slowly enough for passengers to enjoy looking out of the windows at the landscape and scenes of the daily activities of people living along the national road!

After four hours and some 220 kilometers, travelers will feel the sea winds in the air as they approach the ‘kingdom of resorts’ in the Mui Ne region.

The artery street of Nguyen Dinh Chieu divides the resort town into two separated worlds. One side is dotted with many luxury and comfortable resorts along the pristine beaches, meanwhile on the other side is the world of restaurants, boutique shops, entertainment services and guest houses or inns.

Depending on the weight of their pockets vacationers can choose a luxury service or a comfortable accommodation. For those in search of less expensive options, inns or guest houses are the best choice for their stay during their holidays.

Prices are changed subject to the travel season and days of the week. However, a good bargain will provide travelers an air-conditioned room for two with prices ranging from VND100,000 to VND150,000, or from VND60,000 to VND80,000 for a room with fans.

Vacationers will also find a wide range of pricing for dining, according to their taste. Restaurants scattered along the street serve many different kinds of food, including Vietnamese, Korean, Indian and French among others. However, a seafood barbecue is what a traveler should try, with prices starting from VND35,000 per dish.

To explore the region, one can hire a motorbike or a bicycle priced at VND70,000 and VND15,000 respectively for 24 hours. There are also buses running from Phan Thiet City to Mui Ne every 30 minutes with tickets ranging from VND3,000 to VND8,000 each.

For swimming, one can ask any local for a path leading to the beach, and of course, one can swim freely anywhere once they get to the water.