A Bike Ride around Can Tho and a bus to Ho Chi Minh City

We booked a 1:00 pm bus to take us from Can Tho to Ho Chi Minh City so we had time for a lazy breakfast. Breakfast was included at the hotel but you had to go to their sister hotel the Lotus to get it. The Lotus turned out to be very upscale. The service was amazing. They had staff on hand with umbrellas to hold over the heads of the guests to provide shade from the sun! We had two or three waiters for the table and anything you looked like you might need appeared like magic. Vietnamize coffee is some of the best in the world but it’s an acquired taste. The coffee is made one cup at a time with a small filter over the cup. The coffee is very strong and it drips slowly so it’s cold before the cup is full. At the lotus our coffee cups were in cups of hot water to keep the coffee warm.

The Lotus is also by the river so we watched the fisherman while we ate.

After breakfast we got bikes from the hotel and went off to explore away from the main tourist area. We found a local market with all kinds of stuff. Everything from fresh produce, fish and meat to plastic chairs and kitchen tools.

We took the local ferry (with our bikes) across the river for 2,000 VND each and rode along the other side of the river. Some of what we saw on this side of the river looked like people were living a pretty basic existence. We also saw bananas and  fish drying in the sun.

Vietnam has a lottery, actually there may be many lotteries we never figured that out. You see disabled people on the street selling tickets. Although we had no idea how the lottery worked Harold thought a good way to help someone out might be to buy a ticket from them.

On the ferry on the way back there was a blind man selling lottery tickets. We had to get help from a local family to do it but we managed to buy a couple of tickets. We really had no idea what to do with the tickets so Harold gave them to the family that helped us buy them. They got off the ferry ahead of us and when we went to pay we were told the family in front of us had paid our fare. It was a nice pay it forward moment even if we all spoke different languages,

We returned the bikes and bought a couple of sandwiches for the bus trip To Ho Chi Min City. We were picked up at the hotel my a mini van which was very full. It became much fuller when we stopped and picked up a family who had several large, bright pink rolling suitcases. We were amused to discover that they were from Las Vegas!

It took us three tries to get on the right bus at the bus station. In our defense they were all going to the right place.

It’s a 3 ½ trip 110,000VND with only one stop at a big bus station with a food court type set-up, We stayed close to the bus because all the instructions were in Vietnamese so we had no idea when the bus would leave.

We arrived at the bus station in Ho Chi Minh City, 9 km from our hotel and took a metered cab which cost as much as one of the bus tickets but it was easier than trying to figure out the local bus with baggage.