Day 31 (10.03) – Last day in Vietnam – to Ha Tien & Cambodian Border

Yes, I know – I jumped a day there – somehow, my days here got mixed up….

We checked out this morning spontaneously the possibility of taking a boat up Mekong to Phnom Penh, and continuing on from there. It would have been possible for 15$ per person plus 15$ for the two bikes – alas we were 5-10 minutes late with the boats leaving at 8:30 in the morning.

Breakfast…. 

So, it was back to the old plan cycling to the border/coast and on through Cambodia from there.

We took a road that followed a river all the way down to the coast – with the Cambodian border about 200m away (though we saw none of it for the whole day). It was a nice road with very little traffic taking us through numerous little villages, and not the best-off part of Vietnam – lots of tin shacks and very few full houses like we saw in the north (even if very poor).

Drying rice on the roadside

But as with the rest of Vietnam (in the countryside), we were greeted but lots of smiles, yells of “hello” and people that were just plain fascinated and friendly to us.

We met an older couple from Chicago that have been travelling since January through Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia – with 3 weeks left to go – evidently, they have been doing these kinds of cycling trips for over 40 years (they were in Vietnam cycling 40 years ago already).  It was fascinating talking to them.

At last, we arrived in Ha Tien, checked in and showered (it was not as hot today – only 33° in the shade). The hotel looks great from the outside and the hotel rooms themselves were great, but the rest of the infrastructure was sadly lacking – multiple areas (lounge, terrace Café, carpets) were abandoned and in very bad shaped.

We wandered through town, had a beer or two at an Ex-pat bar (not the most pleasant people there to talk to), had dinner (part 1) at some local plastic-table-and-stool street vendor, before getting to the river shoreline, where they had set up hundreds of small tables and stools and were selling fresh seafood that they grilled and cooked for everyone there – fresher squid and shrimps would probably be difficult to find.

Tomorrow we leave Vietnam with sadness – Vietnam was a lot more than we expected in many aspects – I personally will definitely be coming back some day.

(96km / 102m)