Smokers to the left of me, smokers to the right... (Jan. 27/09 - Can Tho, Vietnam)

Thankful that the ocean was nice and calm for our three hour boat trip back to the mainland, we boarded the boat and hoped it wouldn't be too uncomfortable. I guess we can't luck out every time! Our assigned seats were at the very back of the boat in a tiny room crammed with about 30 people right behind the engine room. Since everyone and their dog (literally!) were heading home after the New Year, the boat was crammed full. The tiny outdoor stern deck was crowded with people's motorbikes making the trip too, but Ken managed to claim a breezy spot in the shade for the whole trip. He actually ended up dog sitting two puppies that had been stuffed into bags, one of which only had a small hole for air - completely cruel - and the poor things understandably screeched the whole time except for when Ken was petting them. I was stuck inside, where it was hot and almost claustrophobic since the windows were totally blocked by motorbikes strapped to the outside of the boat. Not surprisingly, the outside deck was popular with chain smoking old men, and apparently the "no smoking" signs inside didn't mean anything since I had to choke on it for the whole trip thanks to a couple guys who went through at least a pack in the three hour trip. To top it all off, the engines were deafeningly loud and the floor vibrations were so strong that it actually hurt my feet. The optimist in me was just happy that the water wasn't rough!

We pulled into Rach Gia at 4pm and teamed up with a couple from Quebec to figure out how to get to Can Tho, on the Mekong delta, hopefully today. A mini bus was leaving at 6:30pm, so we bought tickets and found a little cafe for dinner. Between the staff's nonexistant english and our nonexistant Vietnamese, we managed to figure out that "com ga" was rice and chicken, so that would be dinner. The waitress girls were very curious about our little bottle of hand sanitizer that we passed around before eating, and they were totally amused when all four of us pulled identical bottles out of our bags! Definitely a traveler's best friend!

It was dark by the time we pulled out of the station 40 minutes late, but it was still interesting to watch the world go by out the window. Pretty much the entire 3 hour drive to Can Tho was past shops and cafes along both sides of the road like one never ending town, punctuated now and then with bridges over the many branches of the delta. Eventually we made it, finding a riverfront hotel on the first try. This is apparently the place to see the floating markets of the Mekong, so we haggled with a guy at the hotel desk who wanted to take us out on the delta tomorrow. That was easy!