Saigon to the Delta

Slept in and walked to the bus stop I’d found out about earlier. With no real plan of where to go, I bump into the most amazing fellow. Vincent Nguyen is a self taught (CDs & Books) English speaking hairdresser with family near Bankstown. He tells me I’m at the wrong bus stop, and walks me to the best tour agency he knows, sharing stories on the way.

I decide to go to Can Tho (forgoing My Tho and Vinh Long), thank him for the help and feeling adventurous, ignore his advice, find out where the long distance bus stop is and make my way there via metered taxi.

It’s apparent that I don’t belong here as soon as I arrive. However I buy a ticket from one of the dozens of windows for Can Tho and proceed to sit down and wait at the wrong place for the bus.

Being a foreigner at a locals bus stop, I ask the fellow sitting next to me for when my bus arrives, he points to a location and as I am about to leave, an official approaches me, I show her the ticket, she summons the senior official. The senior official escorts me to the window where I booked the ticket, exchanges some Vietnamese, and directs me to the back of the ticket office.

The way long distance buses work is, you buy a ticket and sit at the back of the office. When enough tickets are sold, you hop on the bus and go to your destination. Twenty minutes later our bus is sold out and an official, realising my “special” status escorts me to the bus (else I’d end up in Nha Trang or Da Lat).

As we’re waiting for the driver to arrive, several hawkers approach the bus, offering bread, newspapers and drinks.

An angry looking old Vietnamese woman hocks up and spits the equivalent of half a lung out the door. This must have been the signal we were waiting for as the driver decides to take off, stopping by the cafe to get everyone a bottle of water and face towel. Service with a smile :)

For comparisons sake, the taxi ride to the bus stop from the travel agent is 85kD, the 4 hour bus trip ticket is 75kD. If I find a reasonably cheap room in Can Tho, this will be my first cheap day in Vietnam.