Em's Mekong Meanderings: Mekong Delta (24th March 2011)

This morning breakfast is at 6.30, I mean surely that’s just wrong when you’re on holiday isn’t it? Especially when breakfast is so bad! We were given a bread roll and a bit of scrambled egg and had to pay extra for butter, tea and coffee and any extra bread. The Israeli guys were quite literally having a bit of a melt-down about it all, demanding butter, jam and cappuccino! All available but at a cost ;-).

Rice paddies being tended by the farmer

After breakfast more people arrive and after about an hour (I could have had a lay-in) we were off. The trip today was supposed to take us to see some fishing villages and some local village life. The guide we had was the most arrogant tour guide I’ve come across on this trip and was so unbelievably rude to everyone and then he fell asleep! More people were joining us and each and every one of them had booked and paid for a different tour than what they were getting and this tour guy just ignored everyone. If someone complained a bit more and he didn’t want to listen anymore he would phone someone and get them to speak to them on the other end of the phone. I’ve seen this happen in both Laos and Cambodia and it really is just a case of ‘fobbing the tourist off to shut them up’ but at least I know I, the Americans, the Kiwi and the Israelis weren’t the only ones. There was even one girl who was supposed to be going to Cambodia but they were trying to get her to do the day trip all over again when she’d already done it yesterday and said it was terrible! I think by the time she realised we weren’t all going to Cambodia and managed to get the guide to understand......I’ve got a nasty feeling she would have missed the boat!

River plant harvesting for home building

After a 5 minute visit to the fishing village we then got on a bigger boat and were told to order dinner, at 8am and also at an extra cost before we set sail for the Mekong Delta when our guide promptly fell asleep again! The rest of the day wasn’t much better everyone was complaining and getting no-where and then we had to sit on a bus for 5 hours! I was supposed to then be staying the night at a hotel in Can Tho instead of the homestay where the majority of the others were staying. We were about two hours into the bus journey when the older American guy has his little melt down and demanded to be taken to Saigon that night instead of the night after. This would have had him and his Kiwi friend on the bus for around 9 hours, but that’s what he wanted to do. So I had this idea that perhaps I could take his homestay place instead .....good plan right? Apparently not......despite the fact that it was already paid for our miserable guide said no and that I’d have to pay more. In the end I gave in especially after seeing what sort of city Can Tho was. So after paying another $19 I headed off into the unknown that was to be our homestay on an island just off of Vinh Long. Previous homestays I’ve done really haven’t been very good, there’s very little contact with the family and you might as well not be there which is why I’m always a little reluctant now, but this homestay was very nice. The family were very friendly and welcoming and our bed for the night was more like a hotel than a homestay. Our accommodation was under one room but split into different rooms each with four beds so each pair and I had a room to ourselves, comfy beds complete with a mosquito net.

My room at the homestay

Fishing at the homestay

After dumping our bags I headed off for a wander around the island and came across (Dean look away now!) the biggest, fattest, brightest yellow spider I think I’ve seen outside of a cage! It was huge! It’s body was bright yellow and around 3inches long and an inch around with legs that were at least 3 inches long! He was huge and very busy spinning a web and actually closer to me than even I would have liked but I had to try and get a picture, not a great one but a pic all the same.