December 14th – 17th Our final breakfast by the sea. It is a beautiful morning but it is time to check out and head for the airport. Smooth check-in, a short delay and after a 45-minute flight with Vietnam Airlines, we are back in Saigon… This time around we have chosen a much…Continue Reading “Phu Quoc to Saigon …….then back to the Great White North”
December 7th to 14th A beautiful day dawns as we look out on the activity on the river with fishing boats off loading last night’s catch for sale at the market down the street…. In the distance, an earlier fast ferry is heading down the Giang Thanh River, which leads out into the Gulf of…Continue Reading “Ha Tien to Phu Quoc ……enjoying some island time”
December 6th The staff at the Guesthouse advised us that there is no FUTA bus to Ha Tien so the only choice is to go by local bus or via private car (70 USD). We need to get to Ha Tien as we will be taking the fast ferry to Phu Quoc Island tomorrow for…Continue Reading “Mekong Delta …….Chau Doc to Ha Tien”
December 5th After breakfast we await the the arrival of San who will take us to a variety of sights…after perusing a bunch of online reviews we had reserved her services for the day some months ago. It is a beautiful day and she is there before 09:00 …the owner assures us she will do…Continue Reading “Mekong Delta …..touring around the Chau Doc countryside”
December 4th After breakfast, it is time to move on. As we have come to expect, a clean, fresh-smelling taxi arrives exactly on time and we are on our way to the Can Tho Bus Station (3 CAD) to pay for our reserved seats on the FUTA bus. Luckily there is normal seating (no contortions…Continue Reading “Mekong Delta ………onwards to Chau Doc”
December 3rd We are up with the cockerels, time for a quick coffee/tea and meet our guide for the day. We head to the Green Village dock, where our sampan awaits. By 06:00. we push off and after about an hour of going through various canals, we reach the Song Hau River one of the…Continue Reading “Mekong Delta ……..early morning visit to the Can Tho Floating Market”
Over the next few days we are conducting a “DIY” tour of the Mekong Delta where we hope to get a good sense of how this agriculturally rich area looks from a slightly less touristic point of view….we are not really going “off the grid” but what the heck it’s a start: December 2nd, A…Continue Reading “Mekong Delta “DIY” Tour > busing to Can Tho, Chau Doc & Ha Tien”
December 1st Today looks like a decent day, a nice breakfast, I opt for the seafood noodle soup (pho) yummy > the hotel is owned by a retired teacher who spent time in Germany and his English, as well as his wife’s, is excellent …a rather pedantic fellow, but well-meaning. Our hotel room is nice…Continue Reading “Saigon …..an easy going tourist day”
November 30th Up at 05:00 to have a shower before catching a cab to the airport, the airline had moved up the flight time so we had no say in the matter and were at the airport, checked in and waiting by 07:15…the hotel had prepared us some breakfast takeaway so we will not be…Continue Reading “Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City…..aka Saigon”
November 28th After breakfast we decided that having completed everything in our plan over the last two days we would keep it low-key…..just do a walkabout around the area we are staying in and then take it easy for the balance. Ninh Binh is not the prettiest town in the world but that is often…Continue Reading “Ninh Binh ….a quieter day, then onwards to Hanoi”