Mekong Delta, Day 2
After only a couple of hours sleep we woke up early and prepared ourselves for the next day’s cycling.
We were due to be picked up by our boat to take us further along the river to meet the van and our driver but the tide was so low that we had to wait as the boat couldn’t come and get us. When we eventually got on the boat it took us ages to move a relatively short distance as the water was only a foot or two deep in places. Luckily we had a very experienced boatman who steered through the canals. Some boats we stuck and simply had to wait until the tide rose before they could move. It was a great experience though and was really interesting to see the river villages and the boat life from the water.
Once we arrived in VinhLong it was back on the bikes. The legs felt fine but my bum was a bit sore and we’d both caught a bit of sun the day before. Because we’d set off later than planned due to the tides, it meant that we were cycling in the midday sun and it was much, much harder. The temperatures were pushing 40 degrees and the sun was really fierce. To help matters we were also cycling into the wind. It was hard work and we had a long way to cycle that day (about 40km) so we just had to get on with it and kept stopping for breaks. We discovered that sugar cane drinks that you could get at little shacks at the side of the road were the ultimate energy drink and really refreshing – freshly squeezed sugar cane, freshly squeezed kumquats poured over some crushed ice. Delicious!
The area that we cycled through that day was much, much poorer and we saw many people who lived in what were literally shacks at the side of the road. The scenery was lovely and very rural. We had to negotiate cows crossing the road, kids on bikes on their way home from school, tractors filled up with tropical fruits and the produce from the area. There were also lots of paddy fields with water buffalo grazing at the side of them and people tending to their crops wearing the iconic Vietnamese conical hat.
The sun got hotter and hotter though and we were all really pleased to eventually reach our destination which signified then end of the cycling for the day. Exhausted, we fell in to the van, and drove to Cantho where we had lunch and then went to the hotel and had a long bath! Cantho is a lovely Mekong Delta town and that evening we sat on the riverfront and had a delicious dinner and a couple of beers before falling into bed and sleeping like babies!
