Meanwhile, we are at the Vietnamese coast, in a place called Phan Thiet. The last 2 days, along the coast, have been less interesting than the Mekong Delta - more about that later. First, the last days in the Mekong Delta.
We chose to go from Can Tho first to Tra Vinh, and from there to My Tho. That is certainly not the shortest way, we found this route on another cycling blog Rolling East and it sounded interesting to follow. It definitely was! Both days we took multiple ferries, always nice. We cycled through beautiful scenery, on "islands" in the river delta. The first day, Phu Thanh, was just fantastic, a real garden of Eden. A fruit paradise, growing almost every tropical fruit you can imagine. The people we met on the way were extremely friendly and sweet, the villages picturesque and authentic. People in this place live from agriculture, and side products - like making rice paper. An absolute highlight. Same for the "coconut island" in Ben Tre, just after Tra Vinh. Again people were incredibly friendly, the streets were small, sometimes dirt roads, but it was very clean, streets lined with flowers, so beautiful. Also this place was full of fruit, first of all coconut palm everywhere, but also all kinds of fruit - it's clear this delta region is very fertile!
Other than these beautiful, fruity islands, there was a lot of beautiful riding through rice fields, dragon fruit plantations, and coconuts and bananas everywhere. What a wonderful 2 days. Tra Vinh itself was also a positive surprise, quite a nice city, with wide lanes, high trees, good sidewalks - and some nice restaurants (where we sheltered from a heavy downpour in the evening) and coffee shops (Cafe de Paris!)... My Tho was much less interesting, also the last few dozen kms to get there were dull, busy and dusty. We didn't see that much of the city however, as it rained for a long time and by the time we could finally leave our room, it was dark. But: we found nice vegetarian food, where they also had good ice cream. That made up for the last few boring hours... And: we came across an old friend again: the Mekong! We've now cycled at the Mekong in 5 countries: China, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Only Myanmar is missing from the list...
Our plan was to take the long distance speed ferry from My Tho to Vung Tau, at the coast - thereby bypassing Saigon. We never really like big cities as it is, and certainly for cycling they're no fun. But... the said ferry is not operating at the moment. So we needed a change of plan: leave My Tho early in the morning, to get to the ferry in Saigon before 2pm so we could still reach Vung Tau from there, the same day. For longer than expected, it was really pleasant cycling towards Saigon, again with lots and lots of dragon fruit plantationss. The second half of the ride was much less pleasant, although all in all not too bad, until we reached Saigon itself: hectic, smelly, very busy and chaotic...
So our plan B worked well, we left Saigon at 2pm and 2,5h later arrived in Vung Tau after a pleasant boat ride. Vung Tau was really beautiful, it almost seemed as if we had arrived in another country - felt a bit Mediterranean. It was clean, well organized, modern, not chaotic at all, peaceful. We strolled along the beach at late afternoon, enjoyed the sunset, watched the people playing in the sea. Vung Tau seems to be very much a weekend town; there are a lot of hotels, which at this time seemed mostly empty, but apparently the town comes to life every weekend when people travel from Saigon for a weekend at the beach.
The Mekong Delta was really very nice, it was not part of our original plan (did we have a plan???) but we're really happy we put it in. It belongs in our list of favorites - because it was beautiful, and also because the people were so nice. The first 2 days at the coast, since Vung Tau, were less impressive. As such, it's pleasant enough for cycling, and easy as it's mostly flat. But it's a bit boring, not as beautiful as hoped, and the people are certainly overall less friendly so far. There is also a lot of mass tourism - or at least, infrastructure. The first day, from Vung Tau to La Gi, we saw a lot of huge resorts, some still under construction, and enormous plots of land waiting for development - clearly aiming for the Saigon weekend tourism. The second day (in the pouring rain at times), from La Gi to Phan Thiet, was even more intriguing. We rode along a road which lines the beach - and expected this to be very nice. It wasn't; it was a big mess. It was a mess because of all the rubbish, but also because of the resorts: ugly resorts, totally not respecting the potential beauty of this place, and worse still, a lot of empty, neglected, crumbling buildings - some where construction had never been finished. It made this stretch, even though it could be beautiful, really sad and depressing. We hear this is a place where they used to have a lot of Russian tourists (and possibly investments), and since the Russian economic and currency crisis people have stayed away - and tourism has gone bust.
So these past 2 days at the coast have not been impressive - to say the least - and we're hoping for it to get better in the next days. We've heard from fellow Belgian cyclists Dave and Iris that the stretch from here to Nha Trang was really wonderful - so expectations are high!
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| Leaving Can Tho by ferry |
We chose to go from Can Tho first to Tra Vinh, and from there to My Tho. That is certainly not the shortest way, we found this route on another cycling blog Rolling East and it sounded interesting to follow. It definitely was! Both days we took multiple ferries, always nice. We cycled through beautiful scenery, on "islands" in the river delta. The first day, Phu Thanh, was just fantastic, a real garden of Eden. A fruit paradise, growing almost every tropical fruit you can imagine. The people we met on the way were extremely friendly and sweet, the villages picturesque and authentic. People in this place live from agriculture, and side products - like making rice paper. An absolute highlight. Same for the "coconut island" in Ben Tre, just after Tra Vinh. Again people were incredibly friendly, the streets were small, sometimes dirt roads, but it was very clean, streets lined with flowers, so beautiful. Also this place was full of fruit, first of all coconut palm everywhere, but also all kinds of fruit - it's clear this delta region is very fertile!
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| A spontaneous hello from the boatsman |
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| Drying rice paper in the sun |
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| Winning of the picturesque category award |
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| Beautiful, peaceful, pleasant and above all: extremely friendly! |
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| Wonderful scenery |
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| And a happy couple |
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| Flower lined roads through the coconut palm plantations |
Other than these beautiful, fruity islands, there was a lot of beautiful riding through rice fields, dragon fruit plantations, and coconuts and bananas everywhere. What a wonderful 2 days. Tra Vinh itself was also a positive surprise, quite a nice city, with wide lanes, high trees, good sidewalks - and some nice restaurants (where we sheltered from a heavy downpour in the evening) and coffee shops (Cafe de Paris!)... My Tho was much less interesting, also the last few dozen kms to get there were dull, busy and dusty. We didn't see that much of the city however, as it rained for a long time and by the time we could finally leave our room, it was dark. But: we found nice vegetarian food, where they also had good ice cream. That made up for the last few boring hours... And: we came across an old friend again: the Mekong! We've now cycled at the Mekong in 5 countries: China, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Only Myanmar is missing from the list...
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| Beauty lies in... the wet road after a short downpour |
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| This sums it all up: rice fields, dragon fruit, coconut palms and banana trees |
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| On the way to Saigon we still found quite a lot of quiet backroads |
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| Dragon fruit, almost ready for harvest |
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| On one of the many ferry crossings |
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| For a while, there were a lot of graves in the rice fields; not sure if this was related to the Vietnam war, as we also saw some war cemeteries in this area (which make you realize again what has happened here!) |
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| Getting ready for the next ferry |
Our plan was to take the long distance speed ferry from My Tho to Vung Tau, at the coast - thereby bypassing Saigon. We never really like big cities as it is, and certainly for cycling they're no fun. But... the said ferry is not operating at the moment. So we needed a change of plan: leave My Tho early in the morning, to get to the ferry in Saigon before 2pm so we could still reach Vung Tau from there, the same day. For longer than expected, it was really pleasant cycling towards Saigon, again with lots and lots of dragon fruit plantationss. The second half of the ride was much less pleasant, although all in all not too bad, until we reached Saigon itself: hectic, smelly, very busy and chaotic...
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| I mentioned the Christmas decorations in an earlier post; this is how they do it in Vietnam! |
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| We've seen many churches here, surprisingly, and most of them seem quite new - or like this one, still under construction |
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| In some places, dragon fruit harvest has started already |
So our plan B worked well, we left Saigon at 2pm and 2,5h later arrived in Vung Tau after a pleasant boat ride. Vung Tau was really beautiful, it almost seemed as if we had arrived in another country - felt a bit Mediterranean. It was clean, well organized, modern, not chaotic at all, peaceful. We strolled along the beach at late afternoon, enjoyed the sunset, watched the people playing in the sea. Vung Tau seems to be very much a weekend town; there are a lot of hotels, which at this time seemed mostly empty, but apparently the town comes to life every weekend when people travel from Saigon for a weekend at the beach.
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| Arrival in Vung Tau! |
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| A view out to sea |
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| Just outside Vung Tau - you'll never swim alone! |
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| Sunset in Vung Tau |
The Mekong Delta was really very nice, it was not part of our original plan (did we have a plan???) but we're really happy we put it in. It belongs in our list of favorites - because it was beautiful, and also because the people were so nice. The first 2 days at the coast, since Vung Tau, were less impressive. As such, it's pleasant enough for cycling, and easy as it's mostly flat. But it's a bit boring, not as beautiful as hoped, and the people are certainly overall less friendly so far. There is also a lot of mass tourism - or at least, infrastructure. The first day, from Vung Tau to La Gi, we saw a lot of huge resorts, some still under construction, and enormous plots of land waiting for development - clearly aiming for the Saigon weekend tourism. The second day (in the pouring rain at times), from La Gi to Phan Thiet, was even more intriguing. We rode along a road which lines the beach - and expected this to be very nice. It wasn't; it was a big mess. It was a mess because of all the rubbish, but also because of the resorts: ugly resorts, totally not respecting the potential beauty of this place, and worse still, a lot of empty, neglected, crumbling buildings - some where construction had never been finished. It made this stretch, even though it could be beautiful, really sad and depressing. We hear this is a place where they used to have a lot of Russian tourists (and possibly investments), and since the Russian economic and currency crisis people have stayed away - and tourism has gone bust.
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| A shrimp farm. Vietnam is a major shrimp exporting country, exporting... 723,800 tonnes of shrimp in 2017. Those 7 billion people need to eat... |
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| Marshlands |
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| Typical view riding along the coast; you can see some sand dunes on the left, lots of dunes here. This road is nice to ride on - we did 100km from Vung Tau, and again 90km today... |
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| Coconut juice stop in the hammock forest |
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| Low tide, the fishing boats waiting for the water to rise |
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| Drying of small fish |
So these past 2 days at the coast have not been impressive - to say the least - and we're hoping for it to get better in the next days. We've heard from fellow Belgian cyclists Dave and Iris that the stretch from here to Nha Trang was really wonderful - so expectations are high!
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| Today was a wet day. Luckily, during the heaviest downpour, we had just stopped for a coffee |
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| Just a view |
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| Fishing boats, possibly waiting for better weather |
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| This is a traditional Vietnamese fishing "boat", called a coracle |