DAY 1: SAIGON – BENTRE – CANTHO (L)
Pick up at your hotel in Saigon then take about two hours drive to Ben Tre. On arrival at Hung Vuong pier - the boat will cruise along the Ham Luong river (a branch of the Mekong) and stop off at various local workplaces to give you a picture of how the local economy works, including a brick-kiln, where bricks are still painstakingly made by hand; a coconut processing workshop, where you can sample fresh coconut and see how every single part of this versatile nut is turned into food and other products; and a mat weaving house, where straw mats are woven using a hand loom – you can even have a go at weaving yourself!
You will then hop onto a bicycle for a 15 km fun ride through the quiet and beauty country lane with some difference kinds of gardens such as coconuts; cassaba melon; cucumber; colocynth along the roadside to Mr Khanh’s local house where you can contemplate a antiques pottery collection. Then get back on your bike and cycle to visite rice field. Stop at riverside restaurant for a delicious and filling lunch, featuring such local specialties as elephant-ear fish and river shrimp, washed down with some cold drinks or beers. After lunch, it’s time to board on a rowing boat for a relaxing trip along narrow canals. Back to Hung Vuong Pier, take a way to Ham Luong, Co Chien ferry for Can Tho. Check in hotel
DAY 2: PHONG DIEN & CAI RANG FLOATING MARKETS – RACH GIA - PHU QUOC Island ( B )
5:00am - take a very early boat trip to visit the unique and stunning floating markets of Phong Dien and Cai Rang. What you need to do is to sit back on your boat, enjoy the morning coffee served by the local coffee boat and watch the whole world of trading going on from boats to boats. Phong Dien is smaller in scale and is more of a retailed one while Cai Rang is bigger and is more of a wholesaled one. If you are fruit lovers, go for the freshest ones here at these markets. As our boat edges through the market, you will be surely driven back to the yester-centuries by the sound of bargaining, rowing, motoring mixed with the sound from the coffee boat, meat boat, grocery boat, ice boats…. Saying goodbye to Phong Dien floating market, our boat will speed up through many channels of the Mekong River stretching along rural villages and arrive in Cai Rang floating market (3 km from Can Tho)- it is much bigger and is more of wholesale market with many more big and motored boats. And this will complete a special picture of around a million floating traders in this region who have been happily living a floating life and earn their living on some 50,000km of waterways in the Mekong Delta. Next stop will be a local fruit orchard where you can enjoy some kind tropical fruit as well as understand more about the local life. Then back to your hotel for check out and head to Rach Gia to catch the Super Dong Express boat at 1pm to Phu Quoc island.
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