2012 - Greg's Cycle Tour of Indochina: Bangkok to HCM City: Day 22: Thu 29 Nov

Ride: 80km; total: 1,124km

Day 20: Cantho - Travinh (80km+cycling) After breakfast, there will be time to explore side tracks and trails as the cycling distance today is not far. This gives a great first impression of the “heart of Mekong”. We take first short boat trip to Vinh Long, one of the famous fruits town in Mekong. Then you bike along narrow country lanes, easy dirt tracks and trails. This biking is at its most glorious-through tiny orchards, witness colorful life along the riverside, pedal pass picturesque delta homes, pause to chart with welcoming villagers, clack across innumerable wooden bridges. Cross narrow canals on a local sampan, before finishing at the main ferry for a refreshing boat trips across the expansive Co Chien River. Ride final few km to the very pretty Khmer town of Travinh. Overnight in Travinh. (B,L,D)

Up early after a good sleep and off to breaky near the motel at 6:15am. Felt really well when I woke so head cold is gone thank goodness. Good variety of food on offer, Asian and European. Coffee was its normal low standard though. The restaurant was over water and a flock of geese, water hens and other birds lived underneath and around where we ate. Not sure that this is all that healthy with Bird Flu and the like a distinct possibility. But this is Asia and they live very close to their birds and animals.

Left the motel at 7:30am right on time on the bus to clear the busy, modern city of Can Tho. Drove for about 30 minutes and then onto the bikes for a 20 minute ride to our first ferry crossing of the Mekong Delta. Fairly modern steel craft which only took passengers, bicycles and motorbikes due to the lack of vehicle access roads. Disembarked at an island; a very productive place with all types of fruit and veggies. Surprisingly there were citrus trees growing in a paddock next to rice. Wouldn’t have thought this to be possible but the Vietnamese are great farmers and gardeners. 100,000 people live on the island which is about 8km long.

Another ferry ride off the island and to continue an interesting ride through the Mekong Delta villages and 1,000 of acres of rice paddies. It looked like the best rice crop we'd seen on the trip; apparently the Delta is a very rich place for agriculture. We ended up having an early lunch as there wasn't too many option further on. Lovely fish in a hot pot, veggie & pork dumplings, noodles & tofu, steamed veggies and rice.

Got back on the bikes to finish the day off. The best part was the 15km along a single bicycle/motor scooter concrete path through a rural area. I never get sick of this type of riding, this time we saw the real Vietnam. The houses were, in the main basic but that said there were lots of rendered brick places too. The food production that goes on in these areas is outstanding, especially the rice fields.

You also saw the chooks, ducks, turkeys, cows, geese, goats (although not many) and all the domestic dogs & cats people keep. It looks as though nobody would go hungry in this country.

Arrived at the Motel, Cuu Long about 3:40pm. The guide had apologised for it being basic but in fact it was really nice. Aircon, hot water, clean linen, and even green tea facilities in the room.

After doing the chores, shower, wash the riding clothes I went for a wander around the area with Kev. Saw no Europeans at all; it is definitely a city for the locals only.