 |
| on the Mekong |
 |
Riding the bus, photo makes it look better
than it is. |
Every tour company in Saigon offers super cheap bus tours to the Mekong lasting anywhere from one to three days. However, if your the independent type you can create your own tour as we did to My Tho using the Vietnamese public bus system, our own lodging arrangements and in this case a local boat operator that got us out on the Mekong and a ride up into a canal.
Walked a couple blocks from my room in Saigon to a bus stop close to Zen Plaza and picked up Saigon City bus #2 to Xa Laing Mien Tay, bus station for Mekong bound buses, the ticket across town was 4,000 dong or $.19 US. On this trip I'm not traveling alone, my friend Gary is with me and is a great help as he has make this trip and many other trips into the Mekong independently. We arrive at Mien Tay about 25 minutes before the bus departs, it seems there are plenty of buses heading down to My Tho so you shouldn't have to worry about connecting with a bus. The ticket to My Tho was 30,000 dong or a whopping US $1.45. When you arrive at the My Tho bus station you are a ways from the water front and the center of town where the hotels are but as you climb off the bus as usual there are motorbike guys waiting to whisk you a way. A little bargaining and 20,000 each got us into town.
Let me step back a bit and write about the buses. Cross town city buses are raggedy, crowded and as all public stuff in Vietnam filled with interesting people. As I watch the the little girl empty her stomach on the floor, dad just moves them in the seat so they are away from the mess, it happens again and then somebody hands across a plastic bag but dad can't get it right and then they are gone. Meanwhile, an overly friendly older, like around my age type Vietnamese guy, wearing an aged pink, imitation fur trimmed coat a size too small is intent on reaching across the bus to make me his new best friend. A cute girl across the isle wearing a mask, like many do but outside to block the sun and filter the air, her eyes dancing as she peers at me over the top and then she is gone. Who ever thought thirty minutes could offer that much.
 |
Shouter, eyes the roadside
for new passengers |
When you arrive at Mien Tay station you look for a walk up window that has destination posted on each window, buy you ticket and walk out to the boarding area. Where someone will grab you and try to take part of your ticket and load you on your bus, you can go along or ignore him if you know you have time till the departing. These buses are really raggedy and the seat area is really small so try to stake out two seats, I've paid for two seats before but you have to be really hard to keep them. You see they search out new passengers and never turn anyone away no matter how full the bus is. Each bus has what I call a shouter who hangs in the open door shouting at anyone he thinks has the potential to become a passenger. However. other than the shouter our crowd of passengers were pretty mellow going and coming and the bus was not crowded, we left Saigon around 11:00 and returned the next day around 1:00pm.
Okay, on with my story - My Tho is the first major city you come to when traveling from Saigon down into the Mekong Delta. Kind of a sleepy, medium sized town, government seat of Tien Giang Provence. A center for food distribution out of the delta and in the central city market you will see a good supply of commercial fishing tackle and cordage supplies shops. If you get here make sure you walk through the fish market and if your lucky you can get into the action as Gary did when he corralled a run away catfish. Smiles all around at his success.
Vietnam is ranked the second largest rice producer in the world behind Thailand and most of this rice production comes out of the Mekong. Also, fruits and vegetables grow with very little encouragement here.
 |
Using a small electified net to zap fish.
In the background a barge load of rice. |
Our hotel was the Song Tien which is on the banks of the Bao Dinh Channel a few blocks from the water front. Really nice place, clean with modernly furnished rooms, AC, cable TV, in suite bathroom with a hot shower all for $21.00 a night. Also included was breakfast and I made an excellent chose of an omelet braced with an iced coffee and handled by very cute and friendly Vietnamese ladies.
There are several islands in the Mekong and if you take a packaged tour they run you through them, you see coconut candy being made and it's most impressive to see how those Vietnamese women can package those little pieces of Candy so fast, rice wine production and a traditional Vietnamese music display. Though on your own you can do all this but probably not as cheap an the Saigon travel guys do it with a bus load of tourists but you don't have the bus load of new best friends.
The Mekong is honeycombed with channels and we took a look at that on our boat ride, can't imagine soldiering in there. First just finding your way around the maze and for a military operation, the whole place looks like an ambush waiting to happen.
 |
In the distance is the new suspension bridge
that replaced the ferries |
My Tho has a lot of river traffic and is a port for the fishing industry -
 |
| Channel traffic |
|
| Bao Dinh Channel |
 |
| boat traffic Bao Dinh Channel |
 |
fishing boats at rest
|
Okay, on with my story - My Tho is the first major city you come to when traveling from Saigon down into the Mekong Delta. Kind of a sleepy, medium sized town, government seat of Tien Giang Provence. A center for food distribution out of the delta and in the central city market you will see a good supply of commercial fishing tackle and cordage supplies shops. If you get here make sure you walk through the fish market and if your lucky you can get into the action as Gary did when he corralled a run away catfish. Smiles all around at his success. 
Our hotel was the Song Tien which is on the banks of the Bao Dinh Channel a few blocks from the water front. Really nice place, clean with modernly furnished rooms, AC, cable TV, in suite bathroom with a hot shower all for $21.00 a night. Also included was breakfast and I made an excellent chose of an omelet braced with an iced coffee and handled by very cute and friendly Vietnamese ladies.
There are several islands in the Mekong and if you take a packaged tour they run you through them, you see coconut candy being made and it's most impressive to see how those Vietnamese women can package those little pieces of Candy so fast, rice wine production and a traditional Vietnamese music display. Though on your own you can do all this but probably not as cheap an the Saigon travel guys do it with a bus load of tourists but you don't have the bus load of new best friends. 
