Mekong Delta

25 December 2011 - Phu Quoc Island,  Rach Gia to Long Xuyen - 95 km

Merry Christmas.   Had a moment while booking the ferry last night that we were NOT in Cambodia anymore.  Since the ferry left at 8:00 am and it was 20 km away we wanted to be lazy and take the free shuttle.  When we asked the sales lady she just looked at us and said "You have bicycle?! How we take?" since Cambodia was amazing at packing people and things into vehicles we were just as confused by her question as she was of ours.

As it was I'm pretty sure I saw Santa when I woke Christmas morning because it was that early.  We took the ferry to Rach Gia and then headed through the Mekong delta towards Long Xuyen.  The roads in town were busy and no longer had any doubt that we were in Vietnam!  Scooters whizzed by in apparent chaos but slowly the rhythm of things stood out.

Basic lessons of Roadway:

1) Lanes are two-way for motorcycles and bicycles.  In towns or roads with shoulders do not ride far to the right as this is meant for oncoming traffic

2) Horns indicate to stay where you are OR to move over...generally staying where you are but if a truck is in front of you and a truck horn is behind it's nice to have the warning to move.

3) If someone flashes their lights at you it means that they are NOT stopping and you better stop or make way.

After understanding these rules it became less frantic to cycle....though most of the day was on a quieter highway. This was our first introduction to hammock rest stops!!  This has to be the cycle tourists dream...stop and get an amazing coffee and sit it while laying in a hammock!

Coffee kick...best cycling snack!!

We also saw an ice cream man in front of us and raced to catch up with him in order to get a well deserved Christmas snack!

Success!! Needed my cold fix to remind me it was Christmas

Made our way to Long Xuyen where we circled the town looking for a hotel.  

26 December 2011 - Long Xuyen to ? - 90 km

Today we slept in as we had a 90 km day and thought we deserved a little rest after yesterday's early rise.  This happened to be a bad idea.  As we went to find the bridge across the river only to find a ferry terminal.  Since no one spoke english we bought a ticket and waited to go across.  As we enjoyed the ferry we were relieved it didn't go north...this relief was short lived as John stated "I think we are heading to that island".  We now refer to it as the Mekong river cruise...worth going to the island and back. :)  

Mekong River Cruise aka wrong ferry

After our 40 minute detour we went to the correct ferry terminal (which was easy to spot from the river) and headed across.

Luckily the road we were unsure existed was in fact there (unlike the bridge we were confident about). We spent most of the ride on a quieter road.  We went through the cute town of Sa Dec and I would shortly wish we would have stayed there.

As we got to a bridge to cross the Mekong again I started going up the hill...only to have my gears slip...which I recovered from just in time to have my chain slip...as my panniers were weighted to the lane side I couldn't fall to the rail and couldn't unclip.  As such I fell and as luck would have it was mostly missed by traffic.  I got to see the results of what was the equivalent of a water filled crash barrier for cyclists as a motorcycle carrying two huge baskets of limes grazed me and sent a shower of limes about!  Needless to say I was a little freaked out but ended up with only a few bruises and thankful I was so lucky.  Really need to get a trike! 

Showing off the worst of the bruises...thankfully just below the collarbone!

Went another 15 to 20 km before we stopped at a hotel in the middle of nowhere to spend the night.

27 December 2011 - ? to Ho Chi Minh City - 110 km

As we knew we had a long day ahead and I had no idea how sore I would be we once again got up early.  I was sore but not horribly so.

We spent the day on Highway 1 which is uninspiring.  I thought it was going to be horrendous but it really just is boring with a lot of traffic and nothing to see...not my idea of a good ride but thankfully it was a nice road most of the way!  As when short bumpy sections came the pain of my bruised chest was not pleasant.

The nice thing about having the early start was when we came upon a midday hammock cafe we stopped for a good 45 minutes. John started to doze and I had to stay awake as I knew if we both fell asleep we wouldn't be making it to Ho Chi Minh today.

The traffic started getting thicker at 50 km out. By 20 km out it was quite hectic.  10 kms it was hail Mary time...luckily about this time we ran into a motorcyle lane that followed the canal most of the way into the City!  

Once in the area we wanted to stay we were lucky enough to come across the lady in the blue uniform!  I'm not sure exactly how this works but at first we thought she was a tout and soon by the way she was talking figured out she really was there to help.  She took John to a few places while I waited with the bikes and when we went to the guesthouse we decided on only to have them not except bikes she magically appeared again and showed John a few other places.  In other words she was totally awesome!!