🇻🇳 In Can Tho through the Mekong Delta

On February 6, 2024 we will take the bus from Ho Chi Minh City to Can Tho. Can Tho is the largest city in the southern Mekong Delta. We stay in the “Midmost Apartment”, which is relatively central and on a side street. Our room with a balcony is right on the street and you can hear it (almost) at any time of the day 🙁 We haven't had such a poorly insulated room in the whole of Vietnam 🙈 well, apart from the noise, it's a great, modern and large room with a bathroom , a small kitchen and refrigerator. The next day we go for a walk and explore the area a bit. We hardly meet any tourists and the way the locals look at us confirms our suspicion that only a few tourists get lost here. When we want to go to the river, we end up at a local market where fish, vegetables and fruits and meat are sold. These smells are 😮‍💨 next level!

At some point we turn around and want to go for something to eat. A scooter approaches us from behind. I 🙋🏼‍♀️ suddenly feel a dull blow with the palm of my hand against the back of my head as two people on a scooter drive past us. I'm left speechless and puzzled and tell Christian what happened. “And I was wondering why the scooter drove past you so close,” he says. None of us can explain this behavior, I try to convince myself that maybe it was just an accident.

After eating we walk again through another street towards the river or promenade. We are actually looking for a tourist office because we are interested in a tour of the Mekong Delta. We walk past the Ho Chi Minh Monument and towards the Walking Bridge and see exactly one tour operator! 😅 On the way back we want to get advice there, but the office is now closed. We write down a phone number and go back to the room. Today is my 🙋🏼‍♀️ birthday and I would love to book another tour in the next few days, after all, the holidays and the New Year are just around the corner.

The blog post by Influenzer Travel Bloggers Ania&Daniel aka “Go Traveling” is going through my head. Years ago they went on a day tour of the Mekong Delta with Linh from Can Tho, the daughter of the host family where they were staying at the time. They rave highly about this tour and I have attached a phone number. “It’s now or never,” is what goes through my head. I message Linh on WhatsApp and ask about a tour for February 8th or 9th. Linh answers and suggests an individual tour with her for the next day 🥳 attached is what we can expect on the tour and how much it costs. We feel directly addressed and want to clarify everything with her personally in her office, which is only 6 minutes away from us. Then suddenly my phone rings and it's Linh because she's not in the office at the moment. So we discuss the details on the phone and have a lot of fun with her here 😄 we arrange to meet the next morning and the meeting point is in front of her office. I can hardly wait and am happy and relieved that she is so spontaneously taking time for us.

So much in advance: it will be an unforgettable day. It is still dark when we meet at 6 a.m. in front of Linh's office, a few streets away. We are given a scooter and a helmet each and drive to the floating market, always obediently following Linh. There's not much going on on the streets yet, although you can already see a lot of locals doing sports 😊 By the way, it's our first scooter ride here in Vietnam and we're a little excited. After about 10-15 minutes we arrived. We park the scooters and walk towards the river and head for a boat that is probably already waiting for us. We get into a wooden boat with a friendly man and the journey begins. It doesn't take long before we can see the first boats loaded with, for example, watermelons or pineapples and watch them go about their daily business. If something is sold, the goods are simply passed from boat to boat. For the people here, the market is their daily business and they also live on their boats.

You can also see some tourist boats. Some are small and only carry 2-4 tourists, the next are larger with 15-20 tourists on board and here and there even music is playing. But as we know from Linh, we only stay here for 20 minutes because the floating market is a pure tourist attraction and just like us, Linh wants to move on quickly to show us authentic life in the Mekong Delta. And that's exactly how it goes... our "driver" brings us back to land and we continue the tour. Beforehand, Linh buys us a “bun” at the street food stand and wants to know if we can guess the taste. We can't 😜 it's pumpkin.😋🎃

This time the journey takes a little longer, when we arrive we go to have breakfast in a restaurant. We are sitting among locals and are the only foreigners 😄 Linh has coffee and milk for us and we eat the traditional Vietnamese noodle soup with beef for breakfast. 🍜 Very tasty! Our conversations with Linh quickly become friendly and always funny. We can ask her anything and she also wants to know a lot from us. We exchange ideas about typically German or Vietnamese traditions and cultural differences. Linh also speaks English very well.

Before we get back on the boat, we go to a local market with Linh, where, obviously, everything can be bought. “If you see something you would like to try, let me know. “I’ll buy it for you and we’ll test it later,” Linh tells us. The first thing that hits me is absolute sensory overload 😅 so many people, these smells in the air and then the scooters drive through the market and you have to watch where you step. Because animals are slaughtered here and fish are gutted, there is a bowl of blood lying around here and there. There is meat 🥩 everywhere that you can buy, but also fruits, fruits, 🌶️🍈🥥🍓🍍🍉🧅🧄 vegetables and flowers.💐 We also see frogs for sale, as well as mini turtles and live chickens, but tightly packed in crammed together in cages. Yes, that's not without all in all, I would think you should have a stable stomach. But the locals are super curious and friendly towards us, they greet and wave to us and especially the children can hardly believe their eyes.

When we arrive at the river again, we see the man again who took us across the floating market in his wooden boat. He starts the engine and our journey through the Mekong Delta begins. On our trip we learn a lot of interesting facts about the people who live here and their everyday lives. In between we even get off the boat and walk a bit with Linh. One family even gives us a glimpse into their four walls. They show us around their “bedroom” and “living room” and we are offered a drink. We were welcomed warmly and with open arms and to be honest, I didn't expect that. 🙃 We walk past a few houses, the children are playing outside, a few dogs are eyeing us critically and you can see several groups of men sitting together and drinking a few beers. This is probably a tradition before the New Year, says Linh. We are greeted warmly and everyone wishes us a “Happy New Year”.

We got to try a lot of delicious fruits on the way back 🍍 when we got back to the scooters, Linh offered us not to go back on the main road, but rather a little way through the Mekong Delta, from where we came by boat . A great idea. 🛵 We end the day with lunch with Linh. The meat is A1 👌🏼 and for dessert there is a piece of durian stink fruit for everyone 😄 then we drive with Linh back to her office and our trip ends around 1:45 p.m. We hug each other and say goodbye to her. It was a great day and I am endlessly grateful to Linh for this experience and for making the day possible so spontaneously. Together we pay €83.85 and this price is completely reasonable for what you get! She usually takes up to 6 people on a tour and today Chris and I were the only ones 🥹 Contact from Linh: +84706662440.

On February 10th we drive to Rach Gia in a minivan. We stay one night and take the ferry to Phu Quoc. 🏖️