We are headed to a "homestay" near Can Tho, in the Mekong Delta, about 5 hours South of HCMC. I asked the owner of the hostel if he could book us a bus as he does everything for cheap. He told me that the best way was to take the local bus from the bus station down the street, the one with the liars and thieves, to the west bus station and to get a bus from a company called Phuong Trang. This is NOT something that would happen at a normal hotel, they would try to sell me some extremely expensive bus ticket and I was really thankful for his help and honesty.
We got the bus to the west bus station for 4000 VND ($0.20) and found the booth to buy the tickets. The price was written permanently on the glass and the women at the counter were really helpful. We were directed around to the right to a line of new looking buses. We were told to wait in the waiting room for customers of Phoung Trang only, where we were the only westerners. We boarded our air conditioned bus that was clean and had a seat for every passenger. We were then given complimentary bottles of water bottles and moist towelettes. The bus then put on a bootleg copy of the newest Fast and the Furious movie. We drove for an hour and a half without any crazy swerving or honking. I kept saying to Janelle "This is how you are supposed to travel, this is travelling in style" and many other such cliches.
The bus stopped at a special restaurant that was for all of the Phoung Trang buses. We had a quick and cheap lunch and then boarded back on to the bus.
We arrived in Can Tho so quickly, in 3 hours, that we were confused where we were and thought maybe we were in the wrong city. The owner of the homestay, Hung was waiting at the bus station for us. Hung greeted us warmly, offered me a cigarette, which I declined, and then put us onto a small Phoung Trang Bus. This bus drove us a couple of kilometers outside of town and where we were greeted by two waiting teenagers on motorbikes who loaded our bags onto the front of their motorbikes as we climbed on behind them to take us to the Hung Homestay.
I put homestay in quotes earlier because it is Hung's house and everyone who works there is related to him but he has built several bungalows that overlook the river. The bungalows are very basic, there are no screens on the windows or the walls, as they do not actually reach to the ceiling. Thankfully the bed has a mosquito net to keep the bugs away. It was going to be two hours until dinner so we borrowed some bicycles and rode them around the surrounding area.
The area was a mix of rural and suburban and it was really nice. I felt like we were away from the main tourist areas and could see Vietnamese people as they really live. When the children saw us they would get really excited with large smiles and wave while shouting "hello". I got my camera out to document how excited they were but most of the kids had already seen me once and were less excited by me riding back a second time. Here is a video showing the area and a couple of children shouting "hello":
Dinner was included in the room rate, which was prepared by Hung's family. There were about 20 tourists there in all and we got to make spring rolls for dinner which was pretty good, just a bit bland. For dessert we had fresh fruit and a bag of rice wine. We spent the rest of the night chatting with the other tourists and watching Hung's family and pets run around. Tomorrow Hung is taking us on a tour of the Mekong Delta.
Check out all of the pictures from today in the slideshow below:
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