Chau Doc

Alright, we made it out of Saigon just two days ago and currently we're in Chau Doc. The town sits on the border of Cambodia and Vietnam about five hours from Saigon. We chartered with a company that provides gawking tourists a ride around the Mekong Delta but it was a pretty fair deal. For fourteen dollars we got a two-hour bus ride South to Cai Be where we transfered to long boats for a ride through the Delta and along the floating markets. We got off the boat in some remote villages to check out the locals making things like coconut candy, puff rice, something like caramel corn, and other things that they then had the opportunity to sell us. It was nice. Some things we probably couldn't have seen without the connections of the tour company and they also make it possible for the villagers to make a couple extra bucks. Good stuff.

After a couple of hours trucking along narrow river passages we made it to Vinh Long which was our intended destination. The idea being that we would split off from the tour and find another boat to take us up to Chau Doc. After talking to someone about our plan it didn't seem like that was going to be a very easy ride to score. Luckily another group was leaving from Vinh Long to Chau Doc later that day so we just hooked up with them. We thought that it was cool because it also included a room on a floating hotel. Romantic right? Yeah, it was definitely more of a floating motel and they made us pay extra for a/c. So it goes.

Now we're stuck inside our room trying to beat the heat which is alright since the day started at five-thirty. We've already made accomodations for an early morning ride to Rach Gia where we catch a fast boat ride across the ocean to the island of Phu Quoc where we're hoping to just settle in for a few days and relax.