CAN THO ~journeys 2010: journal with pfotos~August 10-13, 2010

~ Can Tho at a canter ~

Aug. 11. A couple of years ago it was possible to travel to Can Tho via a local riverboat from District 1 Saigon. But like a lot of 'river routes' up and down the Mekong, the advent of better roads and bridges has meant their demise. Traveling by boat is no longer the cheapest form of transport. A pity. The inexpensive and extremely interesting 'canal trip' was a great way to get out of the big smoke...and avoid other tourists in the process. That particular trip I stayed only a night in Can Tho. Then I took a second local riverboat to my planned destination of Ca Mau. This boat still runs. Ca Mau's a provincial city's at the extreme southerly tip of the delta, of the country. It was a 'I gotta get away from Saigon' thing to do. I stayed there blissfully for five days. I did a circle returning to Saigon by bus. It was a rejuvenating week and it gave me a taste for the delta and it's people.

On two occasions I've taught 'the colonization of South East Asia'. The first was at a 'university' in Sihanoukville, Cambodia then at Pannasastra University in Phnom Penh. I learned a lot in the process! Can Tho's origins are undoubtedly a Khmer story. The Angkorian people were long-time occupiers of this part of the contemporary state of Vietnam. In Cambodia they refer to the Mekong Delta as 'Kampuchia Krom'...lower Cambodia. Had the French “re-incorporated” the Delta [and Phu Quoc Island] into colonial Cambodia in the early 1850s these parts might today be Cambodian! They're not. Can Tho's extremely Vietnamese and an integral part of the country. It's a reasonable-sized city...the main centre of the delta especially for schools and hospitals; education and healthcare infrastructure. It still has a town-like atmosphere though. And of course, the river.

It's the river and the markets that beckons, attracts the visitor when in Can Tho. The river and the markets and their people! People walking along the esplanade; people waiting and working at the ferry wharfs and on the ferries; the people of the Mekong with their boats of all shapes and sizes. The river's utilized to the full for the transportation of goods. It's still number one. The roads aren't that great yet. There's no railway. I'm not really 'into' markets! Too much going on. Too many people in one place. But since there's not a sandy seafront for miles it might be time to visit some! The riverside morning market in Can Tho is an example. It's downstream of the esplanade on the first street back from the river. During my two days I go on various wanders. The weather's predominantly overcast, sometimes rainy. Oh well.

VUNG TAU to CAN THO ~journeys 2010: journal with pfotos~August 10, 2010

~ to Can Tho skirting Ho Chi Minh City ~

On the morning of Tuesday August 10 I head out of the Dong Phoung Hotel on Hoang Hoa Tham Street, Vung Tau. The Vung Tau bus-station is on Nam Ky Khoi Nghia just past the market.

The local bus is an interesting ride up the 'under reconstruction' highway to Bien Hoa on the main Saigon/HCM-Hanoi drag. The traffic then gets ludicrous. Heavies mostly...trucks 'n buses. Vietnam's in the thoes of major development after all. The roads can't keep up. Even maintaining existing ones lags behind. Tolls are everywhere. They can be big money-spinners. But there are bigger. So not much of the current development has resulted in more user-friendly transport infrastructure. Or wait on, hasn't it?

Heading into Saigon on the main road from Bien Hoa's slow going. I'd bought this ride to Can Tho for VND70k with the distinct impression that Saigon wasn't on the menu. There's always the distinct possibility, due to the language barrier, that this impression is a distinctly false one. Seems so wedged between trucks and other buses on the road into Saigon. Hang on a minute! We're sidling right into quieter traffic. Before long we're pulling up at a tollgate. Then like the magic only real money can buy, we're on the still-pristine 50-plus-kilometre freeway that now skirts north round the 12-plus-million-people/motorbike city named in victorious honor for Bac Ho. Fantastic, wonderful. A freeway. Memories of Malaysia. Then, after the freeway's over it's back to the mostly two-lane Saigon-Can Tho highway. Back to the present. We have a welcome piss and refreshment stop. There are buses of many companies continually pulling in and out. Now it's over a main branch of the Mekong on the 'John Howard' bridge near Vinh Long.

We roll off another new bridge and enter the precincts of Can Tho. It's been a mostly enjoyable, interesting and reasonably comfortable 7 hour bus trip from Vung Tau. I somewhat strangely let myself get dropped somewhere in the outskirts of the city. There are distinct language misunderstandings going on...again. It's dark now and raining too...and I haven't got a clue where the riverfront I know is, or how far I am from it.

I've been to Can Tho before...but never out here. Coming in over the newly-opened bridge goes some way to excusing my current disorientation. I've got 25plus kilos to lug around. No panic. I rely once again on my nomad's instinctive good sense of direction. I walk with a sense of purpose, umbrella-protected back to a major set of lights. I hang a left and I walk freely and surely down towards the riverside Can Tho I know...down past the university. I'm going in the right direction. Probably I've covered about 3 kilometres. In the end though I have doubts. No one I meet can speak any English.

When I'm unknowingly about 500 meters from the riverfront I meet a 'xe om' guy ~ a motorbike taxi. He's a guest house tout who speaks my language. He takes me for ride! I pay VND10k to a place I know. It's full though so I end up in a related guest house. It's just around the corner. I have a clean, twin single bed room up on the third floor for VND100k. All's well. It's near the centre of the riverfront I know. Up from the morning market. A bigger place than I thought though, Can Tho, the Mekong delta's big overgrown river town.

VUNG TAU ~journeys 2010: journal with pfotos~August 07-10, 2010

~ Saigon's bolt-hole ~

Vung Tau is Saigon's seaside holiday town. Could it be kitschy? Could it be tacky? Could it be both? It's probably a little on the expensive side that's for sure. I plan to stay just three or four nights. I've heard it's quiet during the week and busy with local tourists out of Saigon in the weekends.

Aug. 07. My visit to Vung Tau. Mid afternoon, the direct local bus from Nga Trang rolls into the bus station. We've taken the coastal road from Mui Ne rather than the main drag. Thankfully we've missed the under-construction-for-endless-kilometres' Bien Hoa to Vung Tau highway. A change indeed the centrally-located Vung Tau bus station. I don't have too far to hike to find a cheap room then. However on closer arrival there don't appear to be cheap-room places nearby. I have the mandatory coffee and cigarette right outside the station. It's not really anything to do with having no idea about where to stay. Just a 'traveling habit' on arrival in a new town. Getting ready for a walk. In this instance, reflecting on my lifestyle too.

I've lived in Saigon off and on for a couple of years. I've somewhat incredibly never been to Vung Tau before though. The closest I have gotten in the past is checking out the fast-ferry at Saigon's district one wharf. Last year I'd had the thought when I was only working weekends that I could live down here. Contemporary Saigon's 'motorbike madness'. I'd commute for weekend work up in the city. Much more sanity-preserving in the long run.

The usual big city in the developing world syndrome. Noisy with polluted air and waterways. A rat-race best avoided. Most that live there have the "I gotta get away" from here feeling occasionally. Vung Tau. I had it but never did make it down to Vung Tau. You can spend a lot of time and energy on the big-city soul-destroying merry-go-round! It's hard to find the 'off' switch. This visit's about checking the place out. Seeing if maybe I could handle living here. Perhaps working here too. Or doing that commute. Starting over.

Right now I'm outside the bus station. Am I ready? Low enough on funds. Stop the gallivanting. Oxymoron or not, the thought does dimly flicker across the darker recesses of my mind that I need again to find a job to survive. It's a split decision. The lure of further travel is real. Sooner or later, when necessity and instinct combine the transient teacher is like a scavenging animal. It's difficult for me to get moving sometimes once I'm in a sedentary phase. Once I hit the road...the nomad definitely takes over. It's very difficult to stop! Until it's absolutely necessary, that is. It's been my lifestyle here in South East Asia for the past eight years. Moving on. Seeking greener pastures. But somewhat reluctantly to start with. Always losing contact with people I've been a bit closer to than normal to along the way. Surviving. On a shoestring most the time. Out of choice. If there's really such a thing.

Vung Tau fills up with Saigon locals on weekends. At the bus station it's a Saturday. The main part of town is situated at the western side of the narrowest part of a peninsula. I begin to wander carrying everything I own. To find Duong Hoang Hua Tham. It's a main street a couple of kilometres long that runs across the peninsula. At the western end of Hoang Hua Tham there's the esplanade along the Saigon River estuary. At it's eastern end is the 'ocean beach'. I reckon on finding a cheapish place halfway between both ends. That way it's not too far from the town, the esplanade and the ocean beach. I want to have a good look around.

I turn left out of the bus-station and walk about one and a half kilometres down Nam Ky Khoi Nghia to intersect Hoang Hua Tham. So far so good. I take a wander up and down for a couple of hundred metres each way. I recognize one place from a guide book. But the Phoung Nhi Hotel's now closed. There's a likely looking hotel right next door. I have as good a room for as cheap as I'll get around this town. After a bit of lighthearted bargaining I agree to pay VND200k for today, Saturday. Subsequent days will cost VND150k per night...until next Saturday! Like most low-budget hotels there's an hourly rate for the casual local visitors with their girlfriends. After the weekend I'm the only 'permanent' guest.

Vung Tau's at it's busiest. But the weather isn't cooperating. It's overcast for the entire three day stay. The ocean beach is alive with people. Living in Saigon one never sees into the distance. Never sees hills. Never experiences wide expanses of much at all apart from long streets and avenues brimming with motorbikes and their colorfully helmeted riders. So though it's not been a 'beach day' weather-wise at 5.30 in the evening the sand is still alive with families new and old. Families of orientation and procreation. People scramble down to the beach from the street that fronts the beach. There's a bit of an esplanade. And a lot of street stalls. This is a pleasant surprise. Not yet fully developed!

The Sunday is a lazier than normal day. In the evening I hit the streets and head back up-town to the Vung Tau market near the bus-station. The market's quieter than on a weekday. The rain's been intermittent again today. It's approaching that time of the year. On Nam Ky Khoi Nghia outside the market there are stalls with flowers, fruit and veges. Just to the right of the market entrance there's a sidewalk coffee place. It's an ideal place to relax and observe.

Aug. 09. Late morning on Monday I'm out and about and heading for the western side of this peninsula town. I wander towards the esplanade bay that's situated on the upstream side of the ferry-to-Saigon wharf. I arrive at the esplanade about noon on yet another overcast day. It's unusually windy too.

The Saigon River isn't that inviting compared to the 'ocean beach'. It's not as polluted as I expected though. What's happening? There's a cyclo. Some kids are watching a para-surfer. There's a wedding photo-shoot going on. The bride's in voluptuous red. The groom's patient like he's got to be from now on. The crew are constructing a set, suspending a swing from a tree bough. Those are photos for a lifetime. I stand my distance. It's an intriguing scene. I'm being entertained. Earlier, I caught a glimpse of square and a big church. It turns out to be the Vung Tau Cathedral.

On the way back to the room, I stop off at a cheap corner restaurant near my hotel. It's still open for lunch but deserted. I'm the only customer at 1.30pm. Lunch time in Vietnam is usually from eleven thirty to one. I think they've cleaned up and don't really need a late, strange-looking foreign customer. But they oblige showing me the menu. The food's reasonable...nothing special but all right. The staff and their kids are friendly. It's a makeshift building with huge, filthy ceiling fans. Afterwards it's 'siesta at the room' time.

I venture out again in the evening. I'm moving on tomorrow to Can Tho. So it's back up to the bus station. There are good, cheap local buses that can take me there directly by skirting round most of Saigon. I have a coffee at the market nearby.

My Vung Tau stay's been surprising...and interesting. It's OK. I'd anticipated that it'd be way too expensive but tacky and I'd hate it. Vung Tau's been a pleasant surprise. I'm heading to pay a visit to an American friend, BigManJohn. He's now back from his China visit and living again in Chau Doc on the Mekong near Cambodia. A border town. He reckons it's a laid-back, friendly, interesting and cheap place to live! We'll see. First I'll stop off at Can Tho the Vietnamese Mekong's main town. The big 'delta city'.

NGA TRANG ~journeys 2010: journal with pfotos~Aug.04~05 2010

~ Cau Da shoreline ~

Aug.04. I stay in the same lane as before. It's central. But in a different place with lots of free water. The room's just VND100k per night. I stay three nights. I've 'done' Nga Trang. On the previous short visit I did long walks to the 'north end'. This stay I 'do' only one...the 'south end' walk along the beach and beyond. I end up virtually at the port with it's tourist cable car over to 'VinaPearl' island. The south end's also where Cau Da Village is situated. I catch a local bus back to town and have a rest at an Aussie bar.

Nga Trang's "holiday beach" town. A shining jewel in the tourist crown of Vietnam is Nga Trang. It's changed out of sight over the last ten or so years. The main beach is a very developed foreshore these days. Twenty years or more ago it must've been absolutely stunning. I'm sure anyone who was fortunate enough to visit then including ex-servicemen who served at Cam Ranh Bay in the '60s and early '70s would surely testify. To change the subject, here's a Nga Trang business idea? Provide machines that disperse reasonably priced premium drinking water. It works in Malaysia. In most towns, in key locations, there's refreshing, cheap water available. And the dispensers of cool, clear water are not only used by 'cheap Charlie' backpackers. There, the locals often refill plastic containers!

It's a hot enough day for cool, clear refreshing water as I wander along the main beach just below high tide mark on easy-to-walk-barefoot sand. That littoral strip is where I feel most comfortable. In the central bay the beach is manicured...kept very respectably clean. Foreign tourists sun themselves. I focus on moving on along in the heat. From a disused wharf I survey the view back along the bay to the esplanade and the main tourist beach in it's centre.

I have no real idea of what's in store up ahead. But I have the feeling it might just get interesting though. I'm still feeling kind of euphoric having extricated myself from Hanoi. Walking on for at least an hour, I pass along the village foreshore where it's really still like Nga Trang must've been not so long ago. I then manage to scramble around the rocks then up the hill with the Oceanographic Institute overlooking the Cau Da villas. The resulting view in all directions from the Institute is well worth the effort. And I avoid paying an admission fee! That's just the way it turns out. An excellent exploration of the south end of Nga Trang bay and along the Cau Da village foreshore.

~ Long Son Pagoda ~

Aug. 05. I visit Long Son Pagoda by accident really. I'm 'en route' on foot trying to find the local bus station. I don't want to endure another 'sleeping bus' down to Vung Tau. This Pagoda with it's huge Buddha is near the bus station. Or so I find out. I approach it from the Cai River side. I see the back of the hill. I see the back of the giant Buddha sitting on it. I'm thinking "I'm lost". I'm way off my mark. But I'm not one to give up and turn back. I continue to follow the street that skirts around the hill between the river and the main road. Suddenly, bingo! There's the station. After purchasing my ticket on a direct bus to Vung Tau for the next morning I visit the entrance to the Pagoda. I stop off for a couple of well-earned cold drinks...cokes that is.

I don't really go in. I have a good enough view of the 'Giant Seated Buddha'. I see a couple of birds playing around on Buddha's head! I just sit observing the comings and goings. I chat with some young women who are helping with the Pagoda renovations. Then I amble off taking a more direct route back to the central alley and my room. Another bus trip's in store in the morning.

CHAU DOC Observing the Mekong ~journeys 2010: journal with pfotos~Aug.2010

~ 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...