Can Tho - Days 222-226
- Meghann
- Apr 2, 2018
- 5 min read
Since Ben, Tay and I already explored a lot of northern and central Vietnam (plus, it’s either rainy or cold up there this time of year), we thought we’d venture south into the Mekong Delta region. Wanting to get a feel of local life, we had set up a homestay on An Binh island, a quick 3 hr bus ride from Saigon. Or so they say. We got to the bus station a little after 11am and just missed the hourly bus. Finally loaded on the noon bus (sleeper bus, actually quite comfy) but the driver wouldn’t leave until the bus was full, which was incredibly frustrating. An hour and a half of waiting later, we finally pulled out of the bus station but with the traffic and all of the little stops along the way, it would definitely take longer than 3 hours. As the sun was already setting, we decided to skip the homestay and stay on the bus to Can Tho, the main hub of the region. Here’s some go-with-the-flow travel for you, Dad!
We finally checked into our swanky hotel in Can Tho and after a quick banh xeo stop, we set off to explore the riverwalk. Can Tho seems like a pretty neat town and with a somewhat modern vibe (surprising for Vietnam).
Lazy day today. Found a tour company to take us to the main attraction of the town tomorrow - Cai Rang floating market. Then relaxed at the hotel pool all afternoon. Ben and Dad tried to teach me some swim strokes... I can’t seem to get the kicks down. Later that night, we ventured back out to a street food market nearby. Though there were lots of food stalls taking up multiple blocks, they were all pretty much the same - either grilled meats, fresh fruit stands, or fresh seafood. After a lot of indecisiveness, we finally choose a stand and Dad orders us a smorgasbord of seafood. All really tasty but the winners of the night were the scallops and the razor clams. Poor Ben had a stuffy nose so wasn’t able to taste much. Then we got a ginormous fruit bowl for dessert.
Alarm goes off at 4:30am. We’re going on a tour of the Cai Rang floating market today! We meet the other family on the tour with us (Danish, all blond of course) then get in our boat and head to the market. The sun hasn’t risen yet but its light enough to see some of the vendors starting to emerge from their boats. They live on these boats until their goods are gone and they need to head back to the countryside to replenish. Super interesting to see them getting ready for the day.
Once we get to the market area, we are immediately approached by what essentially is a Starbucks boat. They offer an assortment of coffees, teas, and other drinks. Being 5:30am, we all willingly oblige. Our boat driver then slowly meanders around and pulls up to one of the smaller boats. We all clamber out to buy some fruit and find ourselves literally in the middle of their “living room”. The dad is sitting in his rocking chair watching the morning news while the mom shows us the fruits 3 ft away. The daughter in lounging in a hammock that somewhat hovers about the fruit. What a crazy life.
Our next stop in the market was to get some pho! It seems to be like a mini-drive thru set up because our boat gets in line behind a few other tour boats and we wait for our turn while delicious aromas drift across the river. The “restaurant” boat is tiny and we’re amazed at what they’re able to do. The pho is delicious and we get to enjoy it in the middle of the river right at sunrise, very cool.
Our final stop is to get some fresh pineapple skewers. Once again, we all clamber out but this time we go on top of the boat amongst the piles and piles of pineapples. They cut up a few pineapples and start to hand them out. The intent was for us to get a quarter of a pineapple each, but Ben misunderstood and bit into the entire pineapple. Hilarious.
The Cai Rang floating market is only the first half of the tour today. After we get our fill, we switch to a smaller row boat and head to explore the canals. It was super fun to wind through the narrow waterways and take a closer look at rural life. We even all got the chance to try rowing the boat (not to toot my own horn but I think I did the best).
We make a few other stops along the way - a cacao farm and a rice noodle factory. Dad took the liberty of picking himself some starfruit from the trees at the rice noodle factory (queue eye roll). Toward the end of the tour, the two Danish kiddos started to get quite cranky (especially Norrrrr) so we were glad to finally get back to Can Tho and retreat to our hotel for a much needed nap.
Since we didn’t get to go to our An Binh homestay, we booked a night outside of Can Tho at Nguyen Shack for a more rural experience. It was a little rustic place right on the river with lots of places to relax and enjoy the countryside.
They offered a bunch of activities, including a pond full of the fishies that eat the dead skin off of your feet. Dad stuck his feet in within 5 minutes of arriving on the property. Have to take advantage of all of the offerings, I suppose.
Dad and I took bikes and roamed around the rice paddies for awhile in the afternoon then we spent the evening reading in hammocks, playing cards, and watching the sunset. Quite a wonderful, relaxing evening.
We joined the hostel-guided bike tour in the morning which took us around the little village and made a bunch of mini-stops along the way. We stopped at a rice factory (where Ben nearly knocked over an entire stack of rice on another tourist), a primary school, rice wine distillery, etc. Fairly interesting, but I liked the bike ride Dad and I did better. After the tour, we packed up and grab a bus back to Saigon in time to show Dad our favorite bahn mi stand in Saigon. We spent the evening people watching in one of the parks while locals intermittently came up to us to practice their English.
Vietnam with Dad was great! Really cool to experience his home country with him again after 40+ years. I tried my best to recall all of our adventures but if anyone wants more details, Dad videotaped nearly the entire time we were there :)