2012 - Greg's Cycle Tour of Indochina: Bangkok to HCM City: Day 21: Wed 28 Nov

Ride: 60km; total: 1,064km

Day 19: Chau Doc - Can Tho (50km+cycling) After breakfast, we leave for the floating houses on upper Mekong river by boat where we can see plenty of catfishes, red snappers… breeding under right their houses. What is an amazing life! Then keep boating to visit the Cham village with about 12.000 people who those are weaving sarongs, hats…by hands as keeping their ancestral tradition. Walk to the mosques that Muslims pray and teach Cham kids in Arabic for a while. Then we start cycling along incredible country roads from Chau Doc to Bachuc along the border, or re-trace back to triton (depending on road conditions). The cycling starts to gently undulate and mountains begin to loom as you ride out off Chau Doc. The presence of Thnot trees indicates the growing proximity to Cambodia and the local people speak Vietnamese as their second lanaguge. This afternoon, you will cycle to the killing fields of Vietnam at Bachuc, where Polpot’s regime massacred over 3,000 Vietnamese in 1978. Dinner and overnight in Can Tho. (B,L,D)

Awoke at 2am in a lather of sweat and coughing, maybe the last throws of the head cold. Managed a good nights sleep nevertheless as Mike Hayes had given me 4 day/night cold tablets. Felt okay in the morning. Breaky at 6am in the hotel, basic but okay, eggs sausage and some brawn thing. Another cycling group of 30 odd were also staying at the Ha Long so it was busy.

Headed out on the bus first up. We were being taken to board a boat. First we visited a floating fish farm where they raised basa for export including to Oz. Also saw 1000s of floating houses, some really basic, some quite flash. There were even workshops, factories, shops and service stations, just like any city but floating. You wouldn't want to see the conditions the fish are raised if you ever eat basa.

Then to a Muslim community which fled the civil war in Cambodia in the 1970s and never went back. The area around these peoples’ houses and shops was absolutely filthy with litter and rubbish everywhere. Returned to the bus and was driven out of town to our bikes. Rode for an hour or so through some busy but interesting areas. Not as pretty as the rural areas of Cambodia, it was very crowded and people seem to live on top of each other in Vietnam.

Stopped off at another Killing Field where the Khmer Rouge had killed about 3,000 Vietnamese. Why, no one seems to know, these people were Khmer too so it is difficult to work out.

Rode the remaining 18km to lunch on a fairly busy road, but with no apparent danger. Lunch was wonderful, fresh Vietnamese food, veggies, omelette, pork & spinach soup, deep fried fish and rice. There was more than enough food. Leftovers pictured below.

Back on the bikes and another 18km along a busy road running beside a canal. It was teeming with boats and lined with houses. This country is certainly "alive".

Stopped cycling for the day at about the 60km mark, had a drink and put the bikes on the truck. The bus was to take two hours to drive to the motel. After about 20 minutes an air hose inside the bus broke and the driver pulled over. The bus quickly got very hot so we all got off for some fresh air. The driver managed to put a temporary solution in place and we were away again in 30 minutes. However it was a long four hours on the bus all up and we ended up arriving at the motel after 7pm. I suspect that the guides were being too nice and that they were reluctant to give us what they consider to be bad news. So they just say two hours instead of four. A long day with a fair bit of wasted time in my opinion, too long over lunch and we didn't need to do another boat trip today.

Booked into a very flash and grand motel right on a river junction of the Mekong Delta; water all around with passing boat traffic. Dinner was at 8pm and at a flash restaurant on the water, not that you could see much as it was dark. Great meal, veggie soup, chicken, lovely hot-pot fish and green beans with a fruit salad at the end.

Wandered straight back and into bed about 10:35pm. I hoped to sleep better, without a nagging cough.