28 degC, 88% humidity
Listed: 80km; actual: 90km: actual:
1068km
Kim had arranged for us to be picked up at
5:30am to visit the floating markets. Wendy let the boys go without her as she
had done floating markets before. She waited for them to return before having
breakfast which was a bit rushed due to the scheduled departure time, but we
all made it.
We drove about 10km out of city before riding.
About 1km later we queued to board the ferry to an island in the Mekong Delta,
before riding another 10km to the other side of the island, where we caught
another ferry to another "island". About 25km further and we were on
our last ferry for the day to the other bit of "mainland".
The route was a mix of smooth bitumen, smooth
concrete with rough joins, hard packed gravel and downright lumpy and potholed
dirt tracks. Some were dusty and some were a little muddy/wet. Some were narrow
(barely allowing cyclist and scooter/motorbike to pass going in opposite
direction) and some were quite spacious. The narrow paths were down with the
local population and we got to see most phases of the rice growing process today
which was probably the most interesting bit of the day.
Lunch was at local roadside authentic restaurant
and the food was ok and plentiful, and had the cleanest restrooms so far (apart
from the hotels, of course). We thought we were going directly to hotel after
lunch but went to some Khmer Museum and to see some "upside down"
trees. The legend has it that the trees were planted upside down and if they
survived, the local village was likely to survive and thrive as well. To us, it
looked as though the trees were planted the right way up, just the root system
had been exposed to many a flood over a number of years.
When we did arrive at the hotel, Nha Khach Hotel
in Tra Vinh, it looked amazing from the outside - just like the one in Kep. And
inside it looked like Kep as well - very unfinished and run down. The bathroom
was the weirdest, with a bath with a shower nozzle on the end of a hose! We
thought we'd have a bath, but when we tried the taps, only a trickle came out
and it would have taken all night just to get enough water to have a "bird
bath". So, we persevered with the nozzle and managed to get enough water
in the bath, without flooding the bathroom. Aircon worked very well though.
For some reason, the guides today seemed more
interested in themselves rather than leading and guiding. Mr Visa was also
riding with us because we were on narrow tracks and needed a leader and a
tail-end-charlie. However, Kim spent much of the first part of the day chasing girls,
and when he wasn't doing that he was up the front chatting with Visa instead of
taking care of the riders who stopped to take photos. Anyway, we all made it.
After "showering" we met downstairs to
find a place to have a few beers before dinner, as although there was a pool,
it was very green and we were told not to use it!! The first place we came to
was a nice open air joint and we decided this would be the place. After
ordering four beers and a fruit drink for Mark (he does not drink beer), Bob
was given two packets of "snacks" (turned out to be watermelon seeds
and something else we could not identify. We hoped the watermelon seeds were
not the ones people spit out when eating the melon!!). We were then asked to
pay upfront and it was the most interesting part of the day. They didn't speak
English and of course none of us speak Vietnamese, so after much gesticulating
and punching of numbers on calculators, we figured it out. Worked out the beers
were just under AUD1 each, with Mark's drink about the same and the
"free" snacks were about 50c each! After all that fun we decided to
stay and have another round which made the ladies day.
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