Vietnam Mekong Delta

This story was posted under the categories: Big Asia Trip, Cycling, Cycling South-East Asia, Vietnam

 After we left Cambodia from Phnom Penh to the border town of Neak Loeung, we crossed into Vietnam last sunday.

Strange how different 2 countries can be… This is Cambodia, 5km before the border.

This is Vietnam, just as we crossed.

The Mekong Delta turns out to be very scenic. Roads crossing through rice paddies and banana plantations. Little rivers and bridges everywhere.

And after 4 months of backpacking we long for something better than just a bed to sleep and most of all we are tired of dirty bathrooms with water on the floor. This is how our average bathroom in Cambodia looked like.

This is what we’ve got in Vietnam, only by spending a few Eurocents more. (Splurge! Now we spend almost 8 EUR per night OOOOHHH)

As we were already spending tons of money Greg decided it was time to give me pocket money to do some …. shopping.
Yeah, with 100.000 Vietnamese Dong I managed to buy myself 2 new T-shirts. And another 75.000 more gave me the opportunity to buy a new skirt as well.

You can also notice the difference in civilisation between Vietnam and Cambodia by the way people are dressed and maintain their houses. Yes we just got here and we already like Vietnam!

And a new country means new food! Of course we immediatly tried the famous Nem (spring rolls) and for change the Vietnamese version of Noodle Soup (Peet: Gregory eet hier ALLE dagen zijn grote kom soep).

But also some new dishes:
A sour salad with a mix of vegetables and some kind of black rice cookies on top of it.

Shrimps steamed in a coconut.

And this sandwich with a chocolate bean paste filling

Our tour crossed through the Delta from Chau Doc to Cao Lahn, over Sa Dec to Vinh Long and we ended this Mekong trip in My Tho. (for more details on the route check out http://www.farfaraway.be/index.php/cycling-route/)

We stopped counting the number of bridges we took, but we kept record of the many ferries we had to take to cross the Mekong zigzaging through the scenery. (maybe a question for our next contest  

Yesterday we left the Delta to take some rest on the beach. And… for the first time in 3 months we have rain. But today we could start our coast-tour by exploring the first beach in Vung Tau. Yes, life in Asia can be hard.