Down the Mekong

We are in Vietnam now. In a town called Can Tho very close to the mouth of the Mekong. We took a bus and boat from Phnom Penn. A little bus came and picked us up from our guest house and took us to the boat dock. Of course there was an iratating Canadian kid on the bus that talked loud about dumb things. I must be getting old for this kind of stuff to bother me. He was telling his French speaking girl friend something about how chickens and cows are skinnier over here? Because they have to find their own food? I wanted to tell him it had a lot to do with the amount of hormones pumped into the beef back home. But instead i put on my headphones and tried to drown him out with music. We boarded a little boat along with some other tourists and off we went on our three hour tour. Johnny and i snagged the best seats in the back of the boat with the best comfort and view. We stopped at the border and dealt with our passports. I looked over and a few people were boarding a boat so i grabbed Johnny and we were off. Our original boat wasn't leaving for another 40 minutes. We made it away from the Canadian and into Chao Doc a few hours later. Right as we got off the boat we were approched by "Hope" who told us for a mere $1 he would take us to a great Guest House. we hopped on his rickshaw and barely the distance of a walk we were there. I was shown three rooms and kept asking if they had cheaper. We stayed in the $5 room that looked exactly like the $8 room only it was on the top floor. The next day we walked down to the bus station, because Hope had told me that the only place to buy a bus ticket was from our guesthouse. I also had read that if you could find an interpretur it was possible to maybe get on a cargo boat down the Mekong. When i asked Hope about this he told me "Not Possible" and since it was the start of Tet, the lunar new year. We would have to purchase our bus tickets today, because they would all be full. I told him we were not going to Siagon, but to the small town of Can Tho. "I know, very full" We found the bus station which has a bus leaving every hour for 1/6 of the price from the guest house. We asked a few people about boats, but it was useless.
Back in the middle of town we spotted travel agent next to a used English book store, I asked the travel agent about a boat down the Mekong and he quoted me at about $200 since there were only two of us. I asked about hopping a cargo boat and he said "Not Possible" we went to check out the book store cause Johnny wanted a Nam Map. When the guy, who spoke a little English unfolded the map for us we traced the Mekong down to the mouth and said to each other we wanted to go that way. This guy told us he had organised this for some other tourists last year. We asked if he could do the same for us. He made a couple of calls and told us to come back at 5am the next morning.
When staying at a guesthouse here in Nam, you have to turn over your passport in case the cops come by and ask for it. It took us a while to talk the owner into giving us back our passports. I told him we would be leaving at 4:30am. The next morning we came down from our rooms to locked doors and barking dogs. I tried every door in the place until finally the guy woke up since the dogs barked continuously from the time we walked down. 15 minutes or so. We walked around the corner to the book store and at exactly 5am our guy showed up with his wife on the back of his scooter. We paid him some money and followed him in our rickety rickshaw down to some sketchy nieghborhood. He had us wait in the dark at a corner for a few minutes then we followed him to a little cafe, this all in the dark. We had coffee and some noodle soup while we waited for another guy who would take us on his little boat out to the bigger boat, that would take us down the Mekong to Can Tho. We boarded the big boat, i paid the little boat guy then gave the Capt. half of what we would pay, i was to pay the rest when we arrived. Johnny and i sat down on the bow of this 40' wooden empty cargo boat as we headed down river. We were told we could come into the cabin, but we wanted to watch the Sunrise. I finally fell asleep and was awakened by the Capt. and told to come inside to the bridge where i took over the hammock for the remainder of the trip. This day was by far the best time Johnny and i have had. It was the Capt. his wife, two sons and maybe a sons girlfriend. They did not speak a lick of English so we just smiled. they fed us lunch of rice, cabbage and eggs, all of which was very good. The trip took about 10 hours. They were very good at hugging the which ever edge of the river had the most excitement going on. We went through a great floating market, watched some local fisherman, skirted along some very rudimentary brick producing plants. Saw some good stuff. Around 4:30pm we rounded a corner and there was Can Tho. About this time the phone rang and it was our boy calling to see that everything went alright. I thanked once again, paid off our Capt. He waved over a water taxi that took us to shore. We waved goodbye and smiled our thanks. We had a hotel picked out, but as soon as we stepped foot on shore we were approached and told of a better hotel. She was old and we could walk faster than her and we quickly ditched her. I think we are going to stay at least one more night before probably taking a bus to Saigon. Malika is still in Cambodia, but we may meet back up with here in a few days here in Vietnam

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