Within about a minute of pulling away from the Cambodia dock we again headed to shore and docked at the Vietnam border station.
We must have gone only about 500 yards. We unloaded again and were led by a guy to a small building with a waiting room similar to that of a small town bus station, with a couple rows of plastic seats. There was a guy sitting behind a window at the front of the room. The man who had led us from the boat collected our passports, visas, entrance cards and gave them to the guy at the window. Once the guy in the window made sure there was a passport from everyone the first guy led us out of there and we walked to another location. As we came out of the building more young girls selling refreshments were waiting for us. They walked alongside trying to sell us sodas, water and beer mostly, but also bananas and snacks. Even though we were in Vietnam now they made it very clear they would take Cambodian Riel and American Dollars.
After walking about a hundred yards we were shown to a little shelter with a couple picnic tables lined up next to each other. It looked just like one of those picnic shelters you can find at any public park, except for the three or four guys in green uniforms standing around.
They kept shooing away the kids trying to sell us stuff, though it seemed pretty good-natured and they obviously knew the girls.
We didn't take too many pictures while we were waiting, this being our first time in Vietnam and not knowing if taking pictures at the border station would be frowned upon. I did take a picture of Lisa that was really about trying to get a picture of a soldier in uniform (they weren't like seriously guarding us and didn't appear to have guns) and of the guy in the distance with the cart. He had pulled up while we were there and most of the kids went running over. He seemed to be selling little toys, stickers and maybe some candy to the kids.
After about twenty minutes or so, and a random bag check for two of our fellow boat mates, we were on our way again. And after buying a beer from one of the girls on the way back to the boat.
Less than 45 minutes later we arrived in Chau Doc. Unlike when we arrived at the public dock in Phnom Penh and were set upon by tuk-tuk drivers, the dock in Chau Doc was empty and quiet. It was at the backside of a hotel so there was no public access. A woman from the hotel came down and met us. She asked where people were going and if they needed transportation. I had found some limited information on-line about how to get from Chau Doc to Can Tho, where we had to get to that night, and all I really knew was that we needed to get to the station to catch a bus. I knew the name of one potential bus company, that it might cost around $5 and should take about three hours, but this info came from one posting on message board and wasn't that recent.
The lady at the hotel told us she could arrange for our bus and that they would come pick us up, getting rid of the need to hire a tuk-tuk to take us and our luggage to the station. It was exactly $5 just like I had read and the bus would be by in 30 minutes. The name of the bus company was different but I didn't have any confirmation on that anyway.
We got picked up in some sort of older 4x4-type vehicle with one other passenger inside so we were a little confused.
The lady in the front seat was a Vietnamese woman who lives in California and was visiting her sick mother in Saigon. She had come to Chau Doc for the day to pray at her old hometown temple.
We realized when we pulled into a gravel parking lot with a bunch of passenger vans lined up that we we were just in a shuttle that takes you to the station. We got out and the driver of the jeep got our luggage, I think Lisa had the tickets taken from her by a young man who then grabbed our bags, shoved them in the back of one of the vans and herded us inside to our seat. This all happened in about 20 seconds. The 15-seat van was about three-quarters full and we were the only non-locals.
The kid who had taken our tickets and our luggage jumped in, slammed the sliding door shut and we sped away. We made a couple of quick stops to pick up a couple other people, with the kid sliding the door open for them to jump in as the van slowed down. We were squeezed into our bench seat next to one other guy and Lisa was trying to see over the seat in front of us to get a view out the front window. She can get carsick if she can't see out the front.
It was after several minutes that I realized the kid, a lanky guy who looked about 19 or 20, was with us for the duration. After several more stops of people getting on and off I figured it out. He was actually the conductor of the van. Passengers would jump on and he would collect their money after asking them where they were going (I assume, no one else spoke English for the entire ride).
Despite the cramped seat this was great. We were on local transportation. All along the route people got on and off, the van never actually stopping mind you. When we approached someone's stop they would get by the sliding door, the driver would slow down, the kid would slide the door open and the passenger would jump out to a running stop.
The same happened thing in reverse for boarding passengers. The kid would scream with his head hanging out the window at someone standing by a stop, presumably asking them if they wanted on this particular van, say something to the driver who would then slow down, the kid would throw the door open and put his hand out to help the person on the van as they made a running jump.
It was awesome.
The driving style, though, was a little scary. The driver, a middle-aged guy, just booked it down the road weaving side to side around the motorbikes, bicycles and other cars on the road. He would honk to tell people to get out of his way. The conductor kid seemed to have a job in this regard too. He would hang his head out the window and scream at the other drivers on the road. Not really sure what he was saying to them, but it sounded like this to me:
"Aye-aye-eeeeeeeee!"
The whole ride was like this, weaving back and forth, going into the other lane even when it seemed as though the oncoming traffic was a little too close to be doing that. Lisa had a tough choice - keep looking out the front window and be scared shitless or don't look and get carsick. She chose the heart pounding over the nausea, since it may have been seen as rude to puke in the middle of the van.
Shortly after we had pulled out of Chau Doc we started occasionally hearing what sounded like a clucking noise. I think for a minute Lisa and I both thought we were hearing things until we realized that both of us were hearing it. Somewhere on the van there was a chicken.
After a while all the seats on the van were taken. Someone got on and I wondered where the hell they were going to put him. The conductor reached under the seat in front of us, pulled out a little plastic foot stool and plopped it down in the tiny little aisle-way between the seats and the door. He would have three of these set-up eventually.
By the time we got close to Can Tho the 15-seat van we were riding in was carrying 18people.
And a chicken.
Prior to arriving at Can Tho, the kid said something to someone in the back row. Over our heads he was handed the chicken in what looked like a wicker bag. Apparently we were approaching the chicken's stop. And we were. He handed the bag to someone in the front row who jumped out at the next slowdown.
After the chicken was handed forward Lisa leaned over and whispered in my ear, "Do you think what the guy said was 'would you please pass the chicken?'"
I could hardly keep myself from laughing out loud, snickering under my breath.
We arrived at Can Tho, the biggest city in the Mekong Delta, and everyone jumped out. Being the only tourists in the van, all of the moto and tuk-tuk drivers surrounded us when we got off. Some kid told us he would take us to our hotel for $1 and I said OK. He then jumped on motorbike without any trailer whatsoever. I explained to him that there were two of us and we had luggage, which he had seen. He kept insisting it was no problem but there was no way I was getting on that thing with my suitcase. It seems that they wanted to have two of them take us on their motorbikes, Lisa and her bag on one, my bag and me on the other. That just wasn't going to happen.
So another guy said he had a tuk-tuk and he told us $1 per person. He grabbed our bags and we piled in. Unlike the tuk-tuks we had been on so far, this one was a two-seater instead of four. So the luggage was kind of balanced on the front ledge of the thing with me keeping hold.
We were going to the Victoria Resort hotel. We had no luck booking a room at some of the smaller and cheaper hotels we looked into all those months ago. Seems rooms can go quickly and far in advance in Can Tho. We were only going to be there one night so we bit the bullet and booked a room at the Victoria for a lot more money than we were spending anyplace else on the whole trip. It was also a little more Western tourist-centric than we like in our international travel.
We pulled through the front gates (yes, gates) in our tuk-tuk and stopped by the entrance. We were met by a bellhop who seemed surprised to see a tuk-tuk in front of the Victoria. He took care of our bags and we gave the driver $5.
We were told to sit down in the lobby and we were brought cold towels and water. We didn't even have to stand at the desk during check-in. They brought us our room key, sent us upstairs and said the luggage would be brought up in a minute.
So after a day of traveling that took about eight hours and involved a tuk-tuk, a boat, a 4x4-type thing, a van and another tuk-tuk, it ended with us walking into one of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed at in my life.
This was our room, a corner suite:
Along with fresh fruit and flowers.
And a cute gecko above our bed to keep us company.
Yea, this might be a nice place to stay.
Next - The floating market of Can Tho
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