Pedal The Continents

The pedalling has been much calmer the farther away I get from HCMC. I even rode without my mask today for most of the day. Yesterday I went for a boat ride on the Mekong River and explored some of the canals and a floating market. It is indeed a very different life than can be found in Saigon. There were the usual cheesy touristy things that had to be endured but it was still a very interesting experience. They make use of a lot of things that we would simply discard. The coconut candy was pretty tasty too. It is impressive how much of a coconut gets put to use. I also ate an elephant ear fish. The presentation was cool as it sat upright with a chile pepper sticking out to resemble the trunk of an elephant. You take bits of the fish out and wrap it in rice paper with noodles, mint and some kind of leafy green thing that I took a pass on. It was quite tasty but a bit disconcerting having this fish watch as I picked it apart with chopsticks! lol.

I took my time but finally made it to Cantho. It is a bustling town of about 300,000(or so). The waterfront is quite pretty and the markets are very relaxed and full of strange things. It also has its share of foreigners. Today I was approached by a Dutch fellow as I rode into town. Turns out he is bike touring alone too and we are heading in the same direction, at least for the next few days. We plan on trying to ride together tomorrow since we both seem to have the same attitude towards touring... pretty relaxed. We hung out for the afternoon and wandered into a Pagoda. A monk started chatting with us and we spent a long time with him. He took us to another Pagoda where we drank coffee and talked about life as a monk and life in Vietnam in general. It was a very interesting and fun experience for all of us. Luckily the monk spoke great English and John has a grasp of Vietnamese so we actually communicated quite well. It is funny how things just happen when you aren't expecting anything. I was actually feeling a bit wimpy for only going to Cantho since it was only about a 40km day but it turned out to be quite a fortuitous decision! You just never know what might be around that next corner.

Tomorrow we are heading to Long Xuyen. Yesterday I stayed at the Kach San Phuong (something or other) in Vinh Long. It was rather cushy and they were very helpful. Today I am staying at a backpackers called Kach San 31 which is next door to the Huang Huy hotel. This seems to be the street for backpackers and it is certainly an adequate room, although luxurious is not a word that comes to mind. But hey, for 128,000 dong who am I to complain!

Labels: Vietnam 2007