The Amusement Park version of Can Tho

Day 2 of our Mekong Tour consisted of a 3 hour bus ride to the Can Tho region of the Mekong.  Half the fun of this stretch was the journey to our hotel.  It began with Rosemary falling off a bench and landing on our head as we ate a delicious lunch of barbequed pork and rice.  The fall scared us half to death and I was extremely happy to see a lack of blood.  We were treated to a less comfortable, non-air conditioned, more dilapidated and more local version of our previous bus for this stretch.  The flat tire that we garnered within the first 20 minutes seemed to be an omen of bad things to come.  However, following the lychee treats given to us at the café that we were stopped next to, and the fixing of the flat, the rest of the trip was uneventful.  Rosemary slept the whole way and we were able to enjoy the countryside, albeit a bit sweaty.   

We arrived at the My Than "Homestay" just before dinner and were a little shocked by our accommodation.  When we booked our homestay, we were expecting a home, or at least a boutique hotel similar to Mango House.  However, a touristy amusement park resort is what we found.  It turned out to be a really good experience, as we were able to get a glimpse into how the Vietnamese vacation, and we were the only white folks around.  The tourist village included a small zoo, some rides, riverfront access, "The Ancient House", a pool, and at least 3 restaurants.  We actually enjoyed our stay and Rosemary enjoyed the pool, it just wasn't what we were expecting.


Our reason for going to My Tho was the famed floating market.  So, we hired a boat from the hotel to take us in the morning.  The hotel suggested we leave at 8:00, and we arrived at the market at about 8:15, and were a little disappointed at what we saw.  The pictures we had seen showed a river filled with produce laden boats all doing business with each other.  The market that we saw was pretty sparse with only a few boats still trading.   An iced coffee and the cruise down the river were really the highlights of this trip. 

I'm sure Can Tho and the Cai Rang floating market have much more to offer than what we experienced.  Unfortunately, we chose not to spend the time seeing what else it had to offer.  Lucky for us, a quaint little city awaited.