After the hustle and bustle of the beautiful Saigon City and historic Cu Chi district, we had some R&R at the peaceful district of Can Tho. It was Yiezza's idea to go to Can Tho and stay at the Green Village Homestay :) She's such a good planner, if it was me I would have lazily stayed in Saigon. Hehe. DAY 2 - Can Tho, Mekong DeltaWe had an early call time in the morning of August 3 because our bus leaves at 6:30 AM. We booked our bus trip through Futa Bus Transport Services online. At first, we mistakenly went to the wrong bus station and I thought we were going to miss our bus, but good thing we were just right on time :) It costs around 5 USD per person for the one-way fare. The trip was around 5 hours, since we had to transfer to another bus and had one stop over. We arrived at Can Tho's bus station around noon then we took a cab going to Green Village Homestay, from the bus station it's around 40 minute drive. Green Village HomestayTucked inside a bamboo and banana garden surrounded by rice paddies and small river is where we found peace and quiet in Green Village. From the main road, there is a short 3-5 min walk beside a small canal. From their website it says "It is a quiet place which allows you to stay away from the usual city stuff and experience the pure and peaceful life in Mekong Delta. You will leave all the tension and stress of a city, only the fresh nature and friendly people are with you here." Which indeed is very true! We were welcomed by the kindest and most accommodating staff, and the sweetest rambutan! The afternoon was our downtime (Zzzz) The whole place was fully occupied. We were the only Asians and the rest of the guests were mostly Europeans. I had the chance to take a siesta in the hammock! It was a really good nap and the air was very refreshing. We had our Mekong River tour at three in the afternoon. They have a catalog of activities that you can choose from but since we cannot leave Vietnam without the Mekong River experience, we just had to! Haha. During the river tour, we two stops - the Crocodile Farm and Banana Ice Cream! The river tour ended at past 5, so it took us (more or less) 2 hours to go around the Mekong River. (Hello, sun burn!) After the tour, we had a chance to rest (again) and we finalized our "transit" arrangements for the next day. Our original plan was - we go back to Ho Chi Minh and take the bus to Siem Reap, Cambodia from there, but since we thought that it will take more time going back and taking the bus from HCM, the owner of the Green Village, Thy was kind enough to assist us in booking a bus trip from Can Tho to Phnom Penh (the capital of Cambodia) and from there, we'll take another bus to Siem Reap. So we settled our plan, we had the yummy Vietnamese dinner courtesy of the Green Village. That night, we had a good night sleep after a relaxing massage. DAY 3 - Transit Day!For the past days, we've been waking up early and this continued. So we took a bus going to Phnom Phen from Can Tho. I only have a few photos of this day because we stayed in the bus most of the time and the stop overs are not picture-worthy. Haha. We tried the street food version of Bhan Mi during our crossover on the boundary of Vietnam and Cambodia. As part of the ASEAN countries, there's no VISA required nor payment in crossing the borders. The bus conductor had our passports stamped on the office while we enjoy the yummy Bhan Mi. Hahaha. Can Tho >> Phnom Phen = 9 hours We arrived in Cambodia at 2:30, we took the next available trip to Siem Reap, which was at 3:30 PM so we have an hour to spare to eat and rest at the bus station. Unlike Vietnam, where it was clean and very modern, Phnom Phen freaked me out a little, the people are a bit sketchy, it was very dirty and uhm, a bit unsanitary. I can't remember how many stops we had, though I'd guess more or less five times. Phnom Phen >> Siem Reap = 10 hours It was my looongest bus ride... Total of 19 hours of travel time. Started our trip on August 4 morning and ended on August 5 early morning, which was Paolo's birthday!!! We were joking earlier that Pao would celebrate his birthday in the bus... Our original plan was to hit the Pub Street right after we finished settling in the hotel. And apparently, Pao had his birthday salubong in the bus! Hahaha. Our Vietnam trip was mixed of the hustle and relaxation which was the right combination of both. There were a dozen of times when people would talk to me in Vietnamese, thinking I am Vietnamese. Though we are from the same Malay race, Vietnamese has this distinct eyes that I would describe as something in between Chinese and Japanese eyes. The Vietnamese are very friendly people. Another observation while were were buying our pasalubong, once you started haggling, they would really match your price and they would find it rude if you'll just leave them after haggling so much. We had a couple of shopping moments and I'm thankful Paolo didn't try to drag us out of the stores. Hahaha. Of course, we were girls and we couldn't stop looking around and that moment of "I think I need this" scene. Before coming to the trip, Yiezza and Paolo didn't know each other. They were from different set of friends - Yiezza from my high school gang and I knew Paolo from the seminary. When we were planning, we didn't have the chance to meet up, we just talked through chat. I didn't think they would be awkward with each other, and I was right, they clicked immediately when we met at the airport. Around the second day, we already have our own routine together. On my next and final part of my trip is our Cambodia adventures. I'm excited to tell you about it because I have so many happy memories there! :) xoxo, M
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She wonders and wandersMonica writes about her life, what she eats, what she reads and where she goes. This space is where her thoughts, experiences, memories and feelings turn into words. She's glad that she can share with you. Archives
August 2021
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