Friday 15 May 2009

Ha Tien

The drive from Kampot to here was fun, on the back of a motorcycle with my backpack, navigating the muddy tracks (or roads as I think they're known) with 3 changes of driver; definitely the best way to travel - wind in your face and 360 views. The temptation to motorcycle from Ho Chi Minh to Hanoi becomes ever more tempting...

So Ha Tien, it's a relatively busy little town on the coast and alot of people use it as a port to get to Phu Quoc Island, but in researching I realised I visited alot of places like that already (chilled out, beach with a book etc) so to go seems silly. The town has one tourist information centre and the lady who works there, Phoo-Wong (pronounced, not spelt) has been teaching my Vietnamese and lets me use the internet for free (thus another post). Today she also rented me a bicycle and I explored the local scenery; went to Mui Nai beach (pretty poor) and on to Thach Dong cave (a favourite amongst the Vietnamese it seems) but I wasn't so impressed, not much there really. At one point they were more interested in having their photo taken with me than paying any attention to the cave - I am the only tourist in Ha Tien I think. The best part of the day though was just cycling through the Delta & villages, lush landscape and an abundance of waves & smiles at every turn. "Hello" times a hundred.

The currency here is the Dong and the quantities are quite amusing. For instance I withdrew 2,000,000 Dong from the cash machine - which seems absurd, but you get 27,025 Dong to just 1 Sterling (no pound symbol on keyboard) so today I am a millionaire. And just to give it some sort of context im paying 120,000 for my room, a bottle of water costs 4,000 and a meal is about 50,000.

Tomorrow im leaving for Chau Doc (not actually on the maps I made but it's North-West of Cao Linh, on the border) and apparently it's owned by Vietnam but is actually part of Cambodia, minus all the border hassle. I'll probably spend a few days there, there's a few villages and fish farms to explore and also a mountain by the name of Sam. From Chau Doc im heading to Can Tho and then to Vinh Long.

I Havell, the time, in the world. X

2 comments:

  1. Hi Tom, wow that was some journey.. thought mine was bad enough 14 hours on a luxury coach to scotland... i,ll have to change the maps over again so i can follow you.. glad your still having a good time, (just be carefull on all these motorbikes please..) it sounds pretty scary.. i,ve started the decorating in the little bedroom but as you know it,s very slow progress with all that cork.. my weekend in scotland was nice lots of alcohol as my sister told you but lots of sight seeing as well, a very good w,end but very tiring.. we are all loving the blogs & there,s quite a few people following them now.. : ) looking forward to the next instalment, take care mum & dad .. plus a bark & a x from your best boy benson..

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  2. Exellent sign off Tom .. mum x

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