what’s to see in the Mekong Delta? (part one)
You might wonder what new things I can I tell you regarding this matter? well since I decided to go the hard way and do the Mekong on my own and not as part of a group tour, I will be able to shed some light on what you are most likely to see, how good or bad transportation can be and the time it really takes to see things and most important the best of it.
things you might want to know if you are choosing a tour:
Time is of the essence:
In my experience I will say that the most important factor for a successful experience in the delta is the time. it is easy to sign in for a tour but the duration of it will mostly guide the pace of things during your journey. But, because most tour operators are trying to fit as much as possible regardless of the number of days you have the rhythm can become quite hectic. As an example I got a ride on a bus with people that were part of a tour and I remember the guide telling them about he program to come which was something like: “ok guys, tonight first thing, check in at the hotel then 7.30 pm restaurant (it was 5.30 pm then), after that you can visit the town on your own and tomorrow morning departure 5.30 AM for the next local tour and will take from there. so basically they were just arriving from several hours of bus and ferry rides and they just had time to put they bags down, eat, run in the town for a few pictures and hurry back to the hotel to be ready for the next day. that give you a real example on how a tour can be quite tiring and have yourselves just running against the clock at all time.
Accommodation and the means of transportation:
the second important thing is the transport and hotels you’ll be put in. however for that it is pretty straight forward. the most money you will pay and the better accommodation and transport you”ll get. that generally means a bigger bus and more comfort on top of that most of the time if you pay enough your guide will speak decent English. because trust me, some guides have a more then average English and it can be hard to understand what they say especially if you just arrived from Europe or elsewhere and are not use to the local pronunciations of English.
what about the things you’ll see:
This one is not really fair in fact because everyone will get to see more or less the same stuff does not matter how much you’ll pay. some tours will throw an extra day or so maybe for cycling around or go on rowing boat but these are really just extras. the main attractions are the same for everyone. However there is again a time factor especially for the floating markets. for example the best floating markets activity happens early in the morning (between 6 and 8 am) and some tours will do the visit around 9 am which by then most the boats will be gone and the site will be disappointing.
which are the best places to visit:
surprisingly the Mekong delta do not have tons of places that will give you the wow factor and after having visited: Mytho/ Ben tre/ vinh long/ Can tho/ rach gia/ and chaudoc I can tell you that only two of theses are the best places to see things.
First on the list is Vinh long:
this is the place where you will be able to experience the homestay with the locals on the Mekong island as well as visiting some interesting factories where they make coconut candy/ rice paper/ and even the rice pop corn with sugar cane. on top of that you’ll have options to spend some time on rowing boat and or cycle around on the islands.
Second is Cantho which is for me the best town in the delta with its attractive river side walk, good restaurants and shops as well as a very friendly and relax atmosphere.
the things best thing to see in cantho are the floating markets (best place for it) and the peaceful river canals which are a great place to make pictures of local life on the silent river banks.
All the other places are offering more or less the same but with much less to see.
Mytho and Bentre are town accessible by ferry with really not much to see, except the local markets which are quite colorful. for the rest the hotels and restaurants are bad and there is nothing to do town. you can still do a tour around small canals and some local markets that are quite decent but there are not as good as the places above.
Chaudoc is the border town with Cambodia and it is also a town with not much to except again some local boat tours on the river. the only good thing in chaudoc was the prices were quite cheap for hotels and food.
A word about homestays:
all travel guides will put that experience as something really special but since I have done it i can tell you that for anyone that has travelled a bit there are chances that you might come out unimpressed by the homestays experiences. Basically the program is telling about living with the locals sharing the meal in a family and discover the way the local people are living etc… however the reality is a bit different. Simply put all the homestay business really feels like a tourist attraction that has been setup for visitors where all the local people having people around are in fact monitored and supervised by the guys responsible for the various tours and also have to make sure that everybody’s passport is checked etc.. so straight away the genuine feeling of spending time with the locals on an island is not what you will get. i would say that the homestays is just the occasion to spend a night in a wooden house sleeping on camping bed out of town. you will eventually help to prepare your own meal by cutting a few pieces of carrot or cabbages for the soup or for the lucky ones will make one or two spring rolls. but away from that don’t expect a whole cooking course of traditional Vietnamese dishes. menu will be very basic and simple. taste wise same thing. the menu we had in the homestay as an example was vegetable spring rolls, pumkin chunks boiled in stock with salt and pepper, boiled instant noddles with greens along with an horrible fatty catfish which tasted like soil. I hope then any of you doing an homestay will be more lucky. from an expensive private office tour (60 us dollars per persons) the homestay was free of choice (meaning you could self select the guest house you ‘d like to stay in) .so you might be more lucky then me with this experience. but again, it is the amount of money you are ready to spend that will alter the experience.
Tags: coconut candy, homestays, mekong delta, prices, river, tours, transport, Travel, Vietnam, Tag Index