Mekong Delta – Revisited

When we were planning to bring Ma to Vietnam we knew there were some places we didn’t want to revisit (Phu Quoc and Little Russia aka Nha Trang to name two) we did however want her to see the Mekong, which is stunning. Last time we joined a TNK Travel tour arranged for us by Vietnam Impressive, the fantastic company we have used again this time for our train tickets and some of our tours. You can arrange all these things yourselves but Vietnam Impressive make it even less stressful.

The highlight of the tour was most definitely the scenery, it is simply stunning and that has not changed. You are in a coach for hours each day and thankfully there is lots to look at. You can read about our original tour here.   TNK have made a few changes to the tour since 2016 and sadly they are not good ones.

Our journey down was nice, we were a group of about twenty but soon learned only two would be continuing on with us for the third day of the tour. The first day is still my favourite one with a wonderful lunch and the magical coconut candy making factory!

We were again separated from the others on the first night to stay at the still pretty poopy Holiday Hotel in Can Tho. Our room had no windows and was the bathroom was not clean, YUCK.   We also stayed in the same hotel as last time the second night and again had a filthy bathroom. Thankfully both nights the bed linen was spotlessly clean.

On the second day there is still a pretty pointless stop on an island where you can go for a cycle (Ma cannot, so we did not) or wait around for those who did cycle for an hour – partaking in a snack of fried frog or snake, we graciously abstained. This stop could easily have been replaced with a trip to a local market which would be MUCH more enjoyable.

On the last morning we visited a floating fish farm. The last time we had done so they had been making food and feeding it to the fish, which was fascinating. This time a few handfuls of premade pellets were carelessly thrown in, sooooo boring!

The visit to the Cham village which had involved a rather pretty walk and an AMAZING coconut waffle was replaced by walking over a rickety bridge directly into a shop – and that’s it. You see no more of the Cham Village than the inside of the shop and no yummy waffles in sight. Utterly disappointing and pointless.

All that said it is a budget tour, and an extremely well priced and good value one. There were however a few things that could be tweaked at no cost which would make it way more enjoyable for everyone Xx