~ the river...from a riverside hotel terrace ~
Anyone arriving by local bus will find themselves deposited at the newly designated bus station. It's a ways out of town...probably close to eight kilometres from the town centre. The closer, older one was situated on valuable real estate that's being 'developed'! Not a good omen. I arrive from Can Tho late morning on August 13. I'm in a new town again. Whoopie! I had no idea I would stay in Chau Doc a month! The hotels aided and abetted. I found three cheap, wonderful places to stay. 'My hotel on the river', the Tuan Loi's the first. I stay there for a week. I observe the river from it's terrace. I wander the streets nearby for glimpses of it.
After Can Tho I want to be right on the riverfront. Where else? I'm not interested in the expensive, plush Chau Doc Victoria...sorry! There's what turns out in some ways to be an excellent alternative. Just the one other possibility...on the river, that is. There are local buses out on the main road into town. But I take a cyclo to it. That's after some friendly haggling lasting ten minutes. The bus would probably cost VND3k. I bargain the cyclo rider down to VND10k from thirty! When the ride's over I give fifteen! It's the middle of the day. We glide through the waves of heat along the busy single-lane main road into town. I'm taken past the main Cho Chau Doc [market]. Chau Doc might be 'developing' but it's still a bit old-fashioned and charming in lots of ways. A lot of it's citizens have motorcycles not cars. Nothing unusual. But there are heaps of bicycles and cyclos still abundant...along with quite a few of the latest electric motorcycles too.
The week I stay at the Thuan Loi it's three-quarters empty most nights. A quarter full! From time to time tour groups come in by boat from Phnom Penh filling it's large well-furnished rooms. They only stay a night. A few, usually middle-aged tour group members relax with beers or wine in the evening on 'my' riverside terrace. They're mostly French or Dutch. When they leave early next morning all returns to normal again. The terrace is good in the early mornings. It faces almost directly east. The river's often like glass. It's magic. Often there's lots of floating plants drifting by. From 10 o'clock on though it gets too hot and bright to hang around.
The Thuan Loi's got a great position on the river just up from the back of the market. There's one problem that I can't really ignore. The VND115k or US$ 6 per night room has very little fresh air passing through. Negligible ventilation. The window's welded and bolted most definitely shut. The extractor fan in the bathroom's very definitely broken. There's air con. But I don't like dry, cool air like in the desert at night! I never indulge as long as there's a fan. Staying at the Tuan Loi, if I need air, I head for the terrace on the top floor above but behind the hotel's river restaurant.
In the end, after a week I finally catch up with a friend. As I'm leaving this overall great little hotel, the staff, who've become increasingly friendly offer me a corner room adjacent to the top veranda for the same price. And it has opening window! But my mind's made up. Plus, I need to get out and about more. Explore the town. Go out to Sam Mountain and over to the Cham 'village'. So I move to another great place where John once stayed called The Hoa Hung Hotel near the centre of town...