Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Mekong Delta Day 9 - My Tho to Ho Chi Minh

Not too far away from Rang Dong Hotel there is a market known as Cho Vong Nho where we had our morning breakfast. Located at GPS : 10.351754, 106.355018
Fenn and Joe were feeling satisfied after finishing their bowls of noodle.
It was Pho again for me, I simply love the clear soup noodle and it is always delicious in Vietnam.
The smiling faces of the local in the market as we moved from stall to stall.
The weather started very good in the morning as we breeze through My Tho and enjoying the cool morning ride.
Chua Truong Sanh Buddhist Temple located at Dinh Bo Linh Road GPS : 10.352252, 106.379788. We could not enter into the pagoda building as there were a function in progress hence we just loitered around the outside of the temple.
There is an older building annexed to Chua Truong Sanh Temple which was quiet, lifeless but with interesting architecture.
We went further north of the town and were attracted by this market. It is another farmers' market and we decided to check out the place.
This market is bigger than the previous one and known as Cho Cu located at GPS : 10.357189, 106.375353
As we were trying to find an appropriate to park our bicycles we stumbled into this amazing old temple. The temple has 2 associations flanked at the side of the temple 福潮會館(福建公所、潮州公所) one for the Hockchew and another for the Hokkien people. There are also interesting paintings on the wall depicting European figures and influence in the region.
 Probably these were the French men whom were living in My Tho.
The entrance to the Hockchew Association.
And the entrance for the Hokkien Association.
The main prayer hall at the middle of the temple.
Suddenly it started to rain while we were pedalling back to the hotel and decided to stop at this cafe for a coffee break.
The rain has finally stopped and one for the album as we were leaving the coffee house.
Let's roll back to the hotel and get ready to catch the bus to Ho Chi Minh City.
The bus terminal operated by Tan Lap Thanh company is situated in a single storey shop house somewhere in My Tho. A Toyota Innova ferried us from Rang Dong Hotel to the terminal and it has to go 2 trips for 6 of us together with our bagged bicycles.
After a short wait the bus came. We had to bring our bagged bicycles into the coach placed in between the passenger seats fortunately it did not cause in convenience to anyone as the bus was not fully occupied. The journey to Ho Chi Minh was about 130km for almost 2 hours.
At last the coach reached its final destination An Điềm, Phường 10, Quận 5 (GPS : 10.751682, 106.666177) which is a couple of kilometres away from our accommodation and we were back cycling in the crazy traffic of Ho Chi Minh. Anyway we were kind of tuned to the condition and did pretty well in maneuvering on these roads. It was indeed a truly memorable experience.
Despite the heavy traffic in the city there are still people commuting the traditional way and do not have any concern on road safety.
We were back to Saigon 237 Hotel at the Backpackers' Street, Ho Chi Minh.
The similar Vietnamese rolls and prawn fritters we had in the smaller town which definitely tasted very much better than the touristy restaurant in Ho Chi Min City. We realised we were missing the delicious and authentic food of the wonderful Mekong Delta.
Day 9 Cycle Mekong Delta was only a morning ride within the town of My Tho before we took a coach to Ho Chi Minh.

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