Anyway, Alice is keeping everyone informed with her E Mails so things are progressing.
We have been gone for six days and it feels like that and more. We flew from Saskatoon to Calgary, overnighted there and then flew to San Francisco. A three hour lay over there left us tired before we even started the ten hour flight to Tokyo. In Toyko we had a four hour stop and then boarded the plane for six hours of flying time to Ho Chi Minh City, arriving at 10:30 pm.
Securing a taxi ride at the Saigon airport is always an adventure. The "not so reputable" cabs are all pushing for your business, but if you ignore the mass of bodies and search for the two highly recommended taxi companies you will be just fine.
Our hotel staff was waiting for us and within minutes we were in our room. The complete procedure from landing to unpacking took 45 minutes....a rare event in Ho Chi Minh!
The next two days were busy and mindless at the same time. We just wandered around stopping at various stores and restaurants.
Alice and Jim arrived late on July 1st, a little after midnight. Nothing much happening that night.
The day after they arrived we basically people watched all day, especially at the Rex Hotel's Five O'clock Follies.
The real trip began on July 3rd. We booked a cruise on the Mekong River aboard the Dragon Eyes II, a two cabin boat with a staff of five. Jim called it decadent.
We were driven to the boat launch which was three hours out of HCMC. We boarded at noon and began a great adventure.
At 1:00 we were served a six course meal...it was hot and we drank them out of beer...all six of them! We were able to get some down time until 4:00 when we anchored, allowing us to walk to a local market. The smell was horrific and we couldn't get out of there soon enough. We walked through a few farms, tasting local fruit as we went.
The skies opened up and a typical downpour started before we could get back to the boat. The staff took our sandals in hopes of drying them overnight but it didn't work..hence Colleen's stinking sandal story.
Another six course, gourmet meal was offered before we went to bed. The food was excellent on this cruise.
A few of us on board were a little uncomfortable with the pitch black night cruising going on. Many of the boats didn't put their lights on until they were close to another boat. I'm sure the captains knew what they were doing, but we didn't. Thankfully we anchored around 9:00, never once being hit by another boat.
Anchor was lifted around 6:00 am to give us ample time to get to Chau Doc. Breakfast didn't disappoint us.
We were transferred to a long boat around 8:00 am and were taken directly to the sampans that we wanted to ride. Two older ladies pushed and pulled us around the canals of the Mekong for about 30 minutes before we reboarded the longboat.
We were rather disappointed in the floating market...we feel the tour company chose the wrong one to visit. The last time we were here the market was the highlight of the Mekong River tour...not this time.
Again we were transferred to another vehicle (this time a van) for the remainder of the trip to Chau Doc. It was a four hour van ride through a very populated area. That includes a one hour stop for lunch where we proceeded to drink them out of beer again...this time they had seven beer! Just enough as Alice only drinks the one.
Our hotel was a good one so once we arrived we didn't leave the grounds. We didn't even try to drink them out of beer here.
We needed to be at the hotel desk by 7:15 for a 7:30 departure for Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We had a ticket booked aboard a speed boat to make the six hour trip.
We knew we had to make two stops along the way...one to exit Vietnam and one to get our Cambodian visa. That procedure took about an hour and then we were on our way again. Another four hours on the speed boat to a new adventure!
1 comment:
And don't forget the bike ride through Chau Doc as well as the coconut candy factory where you were given a lesson in rice paper making. We seemed to fit in about 3 days activity into that one day,
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