Chau Doc, Mekong Delta

We are on a three day tour from Saigon to Phnom Penh so we go where we are guided. We have travelled with a bus company, Sinh and had good experiences so deliberated and checked a couple of others but in the end went with a company that we have had experience with. So it is working out great but the "blanket tour" is still part of the deal - ie stopping now and again at handicraft shops, etc. though there is much less of that as we go up the Mekong due to fewer tourists and tourism development here.

We zipped into and out of Saigon or HoChiMinh City. We did go on a tour of the tunnels that were used in the Vietnam War - pretty tiny and very well developed. Then with all of the noise,wide streets and unbelieveable traffic we decided to depart Saigon the next day on this tour to the Mekong. So we got up at 5:30 am and did our fast walk tour of some important buildings, went back for breakfast at 7 and left on the tour at 8. Sure we have been to Saigon. We visited and ate at 3 fabulous restaurants - that is great culture and education (of my stomach at least) and enjoyed the best sorbets and iced Vietnamese coffees as well.

The traffic is something that you could write a book on. The drivers honk on their horns quite lightly and often suggesting or sometimes trying to demand that some motorcycle move over. I tell you the bigger you are on the road the longer you should last...so pedestrians feel pretty low on the food chain... When an accident does happen the motorcycle stays put and it gets chalked out and measured after the police arrive - we have seen several and the victim is usually gone but the shoes or helmet are still at the scene. There is a technique for crossing the streets but it is tougher in Saigon than Hanoi. In Hanoi you go slow and it all works out. I'm not so sure that works quite as well in Saigon. And there are so many lanes to cross. There are traffic lights - eventually most pay attention but not if you just want to nip around the corner. There are 9 million people in Saigon and 6 million motorcycles and some fancy cars and some buses.

We have seen so much greenery throughout Vietnam. There are beautiful flowers, bushes, trees, arrangements everywhere - in traffic circles, town entrances, everywhere you see magnificent arrangements. This must take a ton of labour as everything much grow like weeds. We see gardeners everywhere.

We saw lots of badmintin and tennis in various schools and common areas as we came down the coast. Here in the Mekong we are seeing soccer and volleyball in the sandy areas that are empty.

The floors in the country are always so clean - the cleanest part. In fact at one rest stop yesterday they expected you to take off your street shoes and use their flip flops. That was an extreme example. But at a hotel the other day we went to rent bikes. We had to go through the kitchen area where they eat on the floor and so shoes off to go in and see the bikes. Every floor you could eat off of. This does not spread to the out of doors and spitting and throwing garbage everywhere. though a lot is picked up every night. It seems that recycling plastic bottles and cans is everywhere so that does help the garbage issue. The Mekong is experiencing problems with polluted water - wash yourself, clothes, drink, shit everything happens here and now the pesticides from the great 3 crop a year production are going in as well. So the great rice production (an exporter in recent years) due to private ownership will not last forever.

I am really loving the travelling and looking forward to seeing Cambodia in the coming days but I also look forward to coming home and seeing friends and family.