Trip Log 34: Mekong River Valley Adventure Day 2 Cần Thơ to Long Xuyên

Day 2 Cần Thơ to Long Xuyên
2019/12/16

Day 2
I was really reluctant to leave Nguyen Shack near Cần Thơ. I had such a good stay there that I wanted to stay longer. But, alas, I had a schedule to keep and the hostel was full the next night. I had no choice but to move on. I bid farewell to the hostel’s cat and puppies and set off for Long Xuyên and promptly took a wrong turn. The riding was so pleasant I neglected to check the map. I went a considerable distance out of my way before I realized my mistake. If I had properly mapped out this segment of my tour I could have cut out 10 or more kilometers. Ah well, these things happen.

Since I had come somewhat away from the main branch of the river (Sông Hậu River, a branch of the Mekong River) I worked my way back towards National Highway 91. In Vietnam the National Highways are accessible to all manner of vehicles, including those being pulled by animals. For cars, buses and trucks there is a toll in some places but bicycles and motorcycles can use them for free. In fact, at the toll booth there is a special lane next to the shoulder where two wheeled vehicles can get through without paying the toll.

Almost the entire day was spent on Highway 91. When I say highway you may be picturing a four lane divided highway with exit and entrance ramps and trucks and automobiles whizzing by at 75 miles an hour. It is nothing like that. You would be closer to the real deal if you pictured a county highway going through the outskirts of a small town. But even that image misses the mark. All along the road there are cafes and restaurants, street vendors and even clothing sellers. There aren’t many side roads between the towns so it feels like all the life of the country exists within a few dozen meters of the highway or in the cities and towns. I know this isn’t true but that’s the way it feels when you spend all day on the road and can’t see much beyond the buildings that line it. Perhaps I should have taken more detours off the highway. Maybe next time.

I don’t know what the speed limit on the National Highway system in Vietnam is as I never saw any speed limit signs the entire time I was in Vietnam but it seems like traffic was going no faster than 50 or 60 kph. At no point did I ever feel like I was in any danger. There are so many motorcycles, bicycles, and carts being pulled or pushed by people that I think drivers are used to slow moving vehicles. Something that is noticeable right from the start is that Vietnamese streets are noisy from all of the horn honking. There are many different tones and rhythms to the honking. Trucks, cars and motorcycles all have their own sound and there is a lot of variation among types. If this were in North America or Japan you would assume that the drivers are always impatient and irritated. But that is not the case. Honking the horn is just a way for faster moving road users to say to slower road users, “I am coming up behind you and I am going to pass you so stay where you are. Don’t meander.” I sometimes wished I too had a klaxon when I passed slower moving cyclists and pedestrians. Unfortunately, on the busy streets it is impossible to tell who is beeping at who.

For people who come from orderly, rule based countries Vietnamese streets may seem, at first glance, like chaotic places where there are no rules. I saw very few traffic lights during the hours I spent on National Highway 91 and the city streets of Can Thơ and Long Xuyên. Intersections seem chaotic but they are a lot easier to navigate than you would expect. The key to getting across the street is move slowly, steadily and in a predictable manner. This is true for pedestrians, bicycles and even motorcycles and 4 wheeled vehicles. If others can predict where you are going they will adjust their path to flow around you just as you are adjusting your path to avoid them. It just works. Just like Adam Smith’s invisible had.

You would be tempted to think that there were frequent accidents with serious injuries. During my time in Vietnam I didn’t see any accidents. I did see a woman have a little incident with her scooter in Long Xuyên. I heard a crashing noises. When I turned to look, I saw a woman picking her scooter up off the ground. I don’t know what caused her to dump her ride but she didn’t appear to be hurt and I didn’t see anyone else involved. I think one factor that might prevent a lot of serious injuries is the slower speed which traffic moves at. The axiom that speed kills is very true.

Another thing I noticed is the ubiquitousness of free Wi-Fi. Putting the dangers of free Wi-Fi aside, it was easier to get a Wi-Fi connection in Vietnam than it is in Tokyo. I stopped for lunch at a roadside eating place that advertised free Wi-Fi. (Calling it a restaurant would give you the wrong impression.) I asked the lady running the place for the password because I didn’t see it posted anywhere. She took my phone and entered the password herself. That was an interesting meal. I didn’t really have any idea what the place offered. Through the power of Google Translate I said something like “I would like something to eat. What do you have?” The woman said something I didn’t understand and I said “Okay”. I had no idea what I was going to get. It turned out to be a plate of rice with some barbecue meat (my guess is pork) and a little bowl of soup. It was delicious. While I was sitting at a low table eating my lunch, the woman’s little boy, no more than 18 months I would guess.) was toddling around the place. He was clearly curious about me but was a little shy. I smiled at him and made funny faces at him and soon he ventured to my table. As I said, the table was low and the boy could easily see me across the table. Without understanding each other we spent a few pleasant minutes playing.

A very common establishment along National Highway 91 are cafes. I saw many signs that said “Cafe Võng”. I saw so many of them I thought it must be a chain store. I found out later that it is not a chain store. It is just a type of cafe. The outstanding characteristic of Cafe Võng is that they usually have hammocks for the guests. You can get a cold drink and rest for awhile in a hammock. These are popular along the National Highway because it is tiring work riding a motorcycle along the highway. Riders like to pull off for a while and take a rest before continuing on with their business.

Thanks to my wrong turns and detours in the morning I road 80 plus kilometers. I arrived in Long Xuyên in late afternoon. Fortunately, I was able to find my hotel without too much trouble. I stayed at a place called Amidi Cafe and Homestay. The name is a bit misleading. It’s true, there was a cafe on the street level but it wasn’t a home stay. It is a good thing that I wasn’t expecting one. The girl working the front desk led me to my room on the second floor and gave me a card and a key. The card was for turning on the electricity in the room. The key was for the padlock on the door. That’s right. A padlock. The room didn’t have a proper doorknob with a keyhole. It had a handle and on both sides of the door there was a place to pass the padlock through to secure it to the door jamb.

I laid down on the cool floor for an hour and inspected the inside of my eyelids for light leaks. For about an hour I found no evidence damage. As the sun went down I heard noise like a big party coming from across the street. When I looked out the door I discovered that I was across the street from 2 large open-air restaurants that were doing brisk business. I went down to the front desk to ask the girl which restaurant was better. With broken English she told me that they were the same and that there was another restaurant around the corner that was better. Taking the word of the local I went around the corner and found a very large, somewhat opulently decorated restaurant that was empty. I thought maybe they weren’t open yet but the waiter welcomed me in. That’s where it got difficult. Problem one: the menu was written all in Vietnamese. Problem two: there were almost no pictures. Like you see in many restaurants the main menu was a nicely bound book of several pages. Inserted into the menu book was one page of specials with pictures. This was kind of fancy restaurant so the prices, I feel, were a bit higher but I thought they were acceptable. I ordered the cheapest thing from the specials menu because the food in the picture looked like some kind of stir fry and I ordered a beer. It is good that I ordered a beer because the dish I ordered was a bit too spicy for me. I did my best to eat as much of it as I could but I had to order another beer to put the fire in my mouth out. I also spent about 20 minutes looking up words on the main menu with Google Translate until I found a dish I could understand. Spinach! I ordered the spinach dish as well. I was expecting a small to mediumish dish of boiled spinach. What I got was a large, heaping plate of spinach. It was good but far too much for me to eat. When I asked for the bill the waiter asked me if I wanted to take it with me. I considered only for the briefest of moments but I rejected the idea because I had no way to carry it.

Lessons Learned
1. Properly map out any side excursions and the route to and from your hotel in advance.