Day 183 (Sat 6 Jan) - Saigon / En route to Cambodia
Up at 7.30 to start our jolly to Cambodia.
Got on our small bus and headed off to Cai Be. At Cai Be we transferred to a long boat and traveled through some floating markets. The sellers advertise what they are selling by hoisting an example of the wares up on a long pole.
Stopped at a local craft shop where we sampled toffee made from coconuts. Very nice.
Hopped back on the boat and traveled onto another village. At this village we hopped onto some bikes and rode for about 15/20 minutes on quiet roads to a small restaurant.
Had a good lunch where we shared a table with Rachel (making her way home to Melbourne from London) and Pete (from Tamworth). Good bunch.
After lunch we were back on the bikes to the boat. Traveled for awhile then transferred to a bus that was thankfully loaded up with our main rucksacks to Vinh Long City and the ferry.
Off this bus with our main rucksacks on and walked to the ferry terminal where we crossed the river. At the other side we walked a short while further before transferring to another bus that took us onto Long Xuyen.
At Long Xuyen we transferred onto another boat that took us all the way to Chau Doc.
It was getting quite dark as we boarded the last boat. Chatted to Pete and Rachel for most of the journey.
At Chau Doc we were bussed to our hotel where we thankfully checked in and feeling a little peckish arranged to meet Pete and Rachel out front to go find food.
Spotted a local restaurant over the road and we settled down for a beer. Unfortunately they didn't have any wine, that Jo was gasping for, and furthermore the menu sounded like it had been thrown together with any animal that came to mind. We all decided that fried field mice, stir fried goats udders and mangoed mash with cat (Sarb made the last one up) didn't sound as though it would hit the spot. Especially as Rachel was a veggie.
Lapped our beers and found two friendly cyclo drivers that offered to take us the couple of kms into town. We paired off and were soon sitting behind our drivers as they slowly cycled through the dark streets.
Found a couple of places to eat although we had real trouble explaining what veggies ate to the friendly locals, despite Sarb's best efforts at reading a whole sentence from the phrase book, in what he thought was a passable imitation of Vietnamese. It was clear that what he intended to say ie. 'My friend here is a vegetarian. This means she does not eat meat including dogs and cats' did not translate too well.
With a collective sigh we hoisted the white flag and turned into the nearest local eatery just behind us.
As we settled down a girl nearby popped up and started to help us with the menu. Very friendly. Turns out she was a student, and not wanting to waste an opportunity chatting to a bunch of westerners got stuck in to ordering us grub.
Very good it was too washed down with a few beers!
(Note: Jo has found a new drink, lager shandy. In the true spirit of marriage Sarb even donates some of his lager to Jo without being asked!)
After dinner and having thanked our new friend we boarded our cyclos, as the drivers had kindly offered to wait for us.
We creaked through the night back to our hotel. A trifle worn out to put it mildly!
Got on our small bus and headed off to Cai Be. At Cai Be we transferred to a long boat and traveled through some floating markets. The sellers advertise what they are selling by hoisting an example of the wares up on a long pole.
Stopped at a local craft shop where we sampled toffee made from coconuts. Very nice.
Hopped back on the boat and traveled onto another village. At this village we hopped onto some bikes and rode for about 15/20 minutes on quiet roads to a small restaurant.
Had a good lunch where we shared a table with Rachel (making her way home to Melbourne from London) and Pete (from Tamworth). Good bunch.
After lunch we were back on the bikes to the boat. Traveled for awhile then transferred to a bus that was thankfully loaded up with our main rucksacks to Vinh Long City and the ferry.
Off this bus with our main rucksacks on and walked to the ferry terminal where we crossed the river. At the other side we walked a short while further before transferring to another bus that took us onto Long Xuyen.
At Long Xuyen we transferred onto another boat that took us all the way to Chau Doc.
It was getting quite dark as we boarded the last boat. Chatted to Pete and Rachel for most of the journey.
At Chau Doc we were bussed to our hotel where we thankfully checked in and feeling a little peckish arranged to meet Pete and Rachel out front to go find food.
Spotted a local restaurant over the road and we settled down for a beer. Unfortunately they didn't have any wine, that Jo was gasping for, and furthermore the menu sounded like it had been thrown together with any animal that came to mind. We all decided that fried field mice, stir fried goats udders and mangoed mash with cat (Sarb made the last one up) didn't sound as though it would hit the spot. Especially as Rachel was a veggie.
Lapped our beers and found two friendly cyclo drivers that offered to take us the couple of kms into town. We paired off and were soon sitting behind our drivers as they slowly cycled through the dark streets.
Found a couple of places to eat although we had real trouble explaining what veggies ate to the friendly locals, despite Sarb's best efforts at reading a whole sentence from the phrase book, in what he thought was a passable imitation of Vietnamese. It was clear that what he intended to say ie. 'My friend here is a vegetarian. This means she does not eat meat including dogs and cats' did not translate too well.
With a collective sigh we hoisted the white flag and turned into the nearest local eatery just behind us.
As we settled down a girl nearby popped up and started to help us with the menu. Very friendly. Turns out she was a student, and not wanting to waste an opportunity chatting to a bunch of westerners got stuck in to ordering us grub.
Very good it was too washed down with a few beers!
(Note: Jo has found a new drink, lager shandy. In the true spirit of marriage Sarb even donates some of his lager to Jo without being asked!)
After dinner and having thanked our new friend we boarded our cyclos, as the drivers had kindly offered to wait for us.
We creaked through the night back to our hotel. A trifle worn out to put it mildly!
posted by Jo and Sarb at
1/06/2007 06:05:00 am
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