Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho 4/15/13 - 4/17/13

We made it to our bus by 9 PM and were at the Vietnam border by 7 am the next day.  We eagerly crossed the border and made it into Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon), the largest city in Vietnam.  It was the start of our end as it was the last country and we only had another 2 weeks left of our trip.

We were fortunate to run into a guy once we stepped off the bus promoting a guesthouse and decided to go with it.  He ended up having a good price for a CLEAN, updated room with a/c, tv, private bath, etc. in his home which was quite a nice change from Laos and Cambodia.  Our first stop was to get some Vietnamese Pho for lunch!  Pho is basically a noodle soup with broth, rice noodles, some herbs, and either chicken or beef.  Delicious!

After food we got down to business since we had time constraints being that is was the last 2 weeks.  First, we made arrangements to get a bus south a few hours to Can Tho where there were the floating markets.  After that was complete, we walked to the War Remnants Museum.  The War Museum mostly dealt with the American phase of the Vietnam War.  It showed everything from pictures of protests across the world, letters of peace from Ho Chi Minh, weapons used, graphic pictures, and even an exhibit of the effects of agent orange.  Although there was a lot of propaganda, it was very, very difficult to get through and quite sombering.  

Once back to the touristy section of the city, we bought bus tickets to head north to Hoi An after Can Tho in a couple of days (or so we thought... more on this later).  Sadly, because we were limited on days and trains/ buses were full, we didn't have time to go see the tunnels used during the war.  Next time?

After our fast and furious day through Saigon, we hopped on a bus to Can Tho the next morning.  We picked a hotel based on a review from friends that had previously stayed there, and it was a good choice.  Our first evening, the hotel set up an outing where we went out with local college students.  It was a good chance for them to practice English and learn about various cultures while they showed us a few highlight spots in Can Tho and took us to a traditional Vietnamese dinner, a hot pot.  We really enjoyed conversing with them and learning about their familes, backgrounds, interests, future plans, etc.  On top of that, it was a great local experience to be passengers on their motorbikes. 

Have we mentioned how many motorbikes are in Vietnam?!? There's more than 90 million people living in Vietnam and over 30 million motorbikes.  In case you can't do the math- 1 motorbike for every 3 people!!  Needless to say, the traffic is crazy!

Free-for-all driving.

The next day we had another early morning that had us up at 4:30 am to get to the floating markets.  We did a private tour through our hotel and our tour guide was very interesting and informative.  Can Tho is a popular town to visit because they have some of the largest floating markets on the Mekong Delta.  Every day boats are on the river selling vegetables, fruits, etc.  We met our guide nice and early and walked down to the river to get on our personal tour boat.  He took us more than an hour down the river to see the largest floating market in Vietnam.  We also stopped at a local's shack (house) on stilts for amazing Vietnamese coffee and classic Vietnamese breakfast pho.  Who knew that Vietnam grows some of the best coffee beans?!?

Sunrise on the Mekong

Vietnamese women were the common boat captains navigating and rowing the boats by themselves!

Bananas anyone??

Making our way through the canal system.

Kristin and our tour guide

Every boat had a pole with the respective food that was being sold from it hanging so that it was easy to see from boats  

Later on the tour we stopped at a rice noodle factory and saw how rice paper (used in fresh spring rolls, fried rice noodles, etc.) was made.  Throughout the tour we also had lots of engine trouble which added an hour of sitting around in the scorching sun while our engine was being repaired on the side of the river!

Boat engine mechanic

Once our tour was over, we jumped back on a bus for the 3 hour ride to Saigon.  Then we made our way to the tour company where we were to catch an overnight bus all the way to Hoi An (we had wanted to take the train; however, thanks to a Vietnamese holiday the sleeper beds on the train were all sold out and the regular seats were more than double the normal price).  Well, we found out once we arrived to the tour company that our plans were not going to happen.  Even though the day before we told the lady that Hoi An is where we wanted to go, and she clearly acknowledged that is where we would get to, it turned out our bus only went half way, and we would have to wait 12 hours through the day in that town before catching another bus the following night to Hoi An.  NOT what we wanted/expected/needed, but we sucked it up.  Another instance of communication barriers/ lost in translation.  This was one of the times we were okay with going home in less than 2 weeks.