Mekong Delta (3) Chau Doc - Chasing Away Evil Spirits

Lowering the tone at the Victoria Hotel

After we arrived by bus at Chau Doc Bus Station, our onward mode of transport to the hotel was to be cyclo.  This contraption is a bicycle with a pram-like trailer attached where you place yourself and your heavy rucksack, and as you balance precariously you are then pedalled to your destination by a really skinny Vietnamese man who, despite appearances, seems to have the strength and stamina of 5 horses.

We (when I say “we” I mean Paul) felt a bit guilty as his cyclo had a bit of heavier load, but we later spied some cyclos squeeze 3 generations of one family onto their trailer and they still manage to get a bit of a wiggle on.

So we arrived at our hotel after 10 minutes hard slog (not on our part though but it was a bit tiring to witness) and the privilege of being conveyed in this manner cost us the measly sum of 80 cents (40 cents each but we paid a dollar – they both earned at least that!).

Mekong Delta (1) My Tho - Sailing on the Mekong

Chilling out at Chalet Suisse in the Mekong

So we were setting off on our final leg of Vietnam through the Mekong Delta.  We had booked into a little place called Chalet Suisse which we thought was in Ben Tre but it turned out it was about 4km outside My Tho, between My Tho and Ben Tre in a place called An Thanh.  The bus journey was only 1.5 hours so we set off from Saigon in the usual confusion but miraculously arrived at our chosen destination.

The bus station in My Tho is very well disguised as nothing in particular and when we were dropped off with our bags we could have been anywhere.  Luckily for us, there was a man there called Phi who could speak English and who kindly arranged for a couple of motorbike taxis to take us and us bags to the Chalet Suisse Guesthouse about 4km away.  I don’t know how they manage to balance us on the back and our rucksacks between them and the handlebars but ten minutes later we were deposited in one piece at Chalet Suisse.