Floating Market, Can Tho

This is my third visit to Vietnam, I have seen many of the wonderful sights all along the country but have never visited the Mekong Delta before. I have always wanted to go and see the southwest of Vietnam where the Mekong river ends its long journey from China through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia.

This past weekend I went to visit my friend Thi Bay in Can Tho, the largest city in the Mekong Delta. After a 5hr bus ride from HCMC through rice fields, villages and towns, I was finally at the campus where Thi Bay lives. Six months ago, Thi Bay left NY for a teaching position at Can Tho University and a chance to reconnect with her Vietnamese roots (her grandfather was Vietnamese, a fact she has to repeat 5 times a day on average). In a short time, Thi Bay has become somewhat of a local star in a city that has very few foreigners. From students walking by to the Xe Om drivers outside the gate, everybody knows her and wants to have a little chat.
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Three cute girls outside a wedding hall

Tamar has just returned from the Mekong Delta where she spent the holiday weekend in the city of Can Tho. A new photo album for Can Tho has been added!

We’re not making a lot of definite plans for this trip. There’s so much to see and do that we’re going to need to go with the flow. However, we are very interested in spending some quality time in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam, in the south of the country. In the latter half of the trip, there’s a good chance we’ll cross the border by land from Cambodia back into Vietnam at the town of Chau Doc. Other possible cities include Ha Tien, also near the border, and Rach Gia, famous for its fishing. Our friend, Thu, and her family are from Rach Gia. Most importantly, we’ve got our eye on a good 5 or 6 days on the island of Phu Quoc, just off the coast of Vietnam, again, near the border with Cambodia. That might be the perfect sun and sand destination we seek on this trip!

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Last year I took a 2 day organized tour to the Mekong Delta from Ho Chi Minh City. Most of the people on the tour were Vietnamese, city folk, some of whom had never spent any time in the major city of Can Tho and the floating markets of the Delta. In fact, some of the young travelers worked in HCMC’s growing hi-tech industry. Too see just how different the Delta is for people like them and like me, I’ve posted a video journey from a boat floating down a river from last year’s trip.