Mekong Delta 31/10-1/11/2019

Shortly after making my booking, to fly the 50 minutes from Đà Lạt to Sài Gòn, Vietnam Airlines changed the flight time from something reasonable to an impossibly early time. Of course, when I got to the airport the flight was delayed and we didn’t depart until after the scheduled departure time of my original reservation- ah well… Still better, but less scenic, than eight hours or so by bus.

Once checked into my hotel, I went in search for a camera repair shop- my DSLR was stuck in the on position and the switch couldn’t be budged- it was a case of fix it in Sài Gòn or wait until the end of the trip, which would have been manageable by taking the battery out when not using the camera. I’d found the name of a repair shop and started heading there but discovered, just around the corner from my hotel, an official Nikon repair shop: Le Vu Camera (Saigon Anh Camera). They looked at the problem and quoted ₫500,000 (about $AU25.00) for the repair which would take three hours, at that price a bargain, so I handed over the camera and went walkabout- but for obvious reasons no photos. I cursed at myself for forgetting to ask them to give the sensor a clean as well but … The camera was ready on time and the switch working better than it had for a long ages.

As luck would have it the Gemini Hotel (no website, pretty good and moderately priced), where I overnighted, was just around the corner from TNK Travel where I had to be for a 07:00 rendezvous for a three day Mekong Delta Tour including speed boat to Phnom Penh. Despite the seeming chaos on the street outside the office they were efficient and well organised. Aster two hours on the bus we made our first stop at an apiary near Coconut Kingdom in An Khánh, where we were given honey tea while being entertained by a group of traditional musicians. Then a short walk down the garden to board small boats to be rowed through a maze of coconut tree lined canals to Coconut Kingdom before walking to the Mekong and onto a river boat to cross to Nhà hàng vườn Cồn Quy (a restaurant inside an orchard) on Cồn Quy Island for lunch.

After lunch it was back on the boat and along the Mekong to Chùa Vĩnh Tràng (Vinh Trang Pagoda) in Thành phố Mỹ Tho (My Tho)- one of the big hot spots during the Vietnam War (American War to the Vietnamese, and to historians: the Second South East Asian War). Shortly after we arrived, but not before I managed to get a few photos, the slate grey-green clouds that had been threatening to open up since lunchtime did just that, in a thick tropical downpour that lasted until we returned to the bus- well it was rainy season! From there we made straight for Bến Tàu Cần Thơ (Cần Thơ) for our overnight.