BEST TOUR EVER!
To start with I must admit that I think I was quite a difficult customer to deal with. Overwhelmed by the amount of firms that offer cycling in the Mekong delta, I had no idea who to choose and why.
In the end I went for SinhBalo because the person I emailed with, Cuong, was so incredibly patient and supportive of all my concerns and ideas, that I felt most recognised by him.
The tour we did in the end was incredibly individualised and even during the trip our fabulous guide, Quang, was most helpful and supportive of changes, even on the actual day!
I have never experienced this kind of service before!
We were met by Quang at the airport of Can Tho; and from the first moment we felt very well taken care of. The tour started off very smoothly with a van trip to a riverside restaurant, touristy, but with quite authentic food. It felt as if he wanted to make our submerging into the real Vietnam as smooth as possible.
Later, after a 45 min walk along Can Tho's river banks at 32 degrees Celsius, we took the van for another 45 minutes to stop in a more remote area to start cycling.
Bikes and helmets (!) were in absolute perfect condition! The attached water bottles were icy cold and little bags on the bikes could hold our valuables.
Along tiny paths our adventure started.
We did cycle 25km on that afternoon. We had several Flora and Fauna stops and a proper break to enjoy freshly pressed sugar cane juice! Delicious!
After meeting the van (being greeted with ice cold towels) and a short drive, we crossed the river in a tiny boat to get to our home stay!
We ended the day by cooking our own dinner in a cooking class, fabulous day 1!
After a night of almost no sleep, so many animals talking to each other all night and a bit of a hard bed, we got up early to have a delicious breakfast and take a small boat to the floating market. Supposedly the biggest of the Mekong delta…
We were there at 8am, definitely not early enough…
Make sure you are there for 7am, when the locals “go shopping”. When we were there it was mainly tourist boats. Still impressive, but a lot smaller then anticipated…
The tour through the small canals afterwards is beautiful, again: make sure you are on a very small boat, maximum of 8 people I would say, as only then you can go down the really small canals!
Later we were met by the van and after a short drive, started cycling again. Fabulous!
Unfortunately this day was very hot and I ended up having a migraine after the first 25km tour. And the tour ended on a very loud, extremely traffic loaded crossing. The lunch in the restaurant was excellent, but the surrounding not. As I did not recover, we changed the plan for the day and cancelled the second tour of the day and drove to our next overnight stop in the van. Pity…
But due to a VERY good driver, we could concentrate on the beauty of the landscape and did not have to worry about the traffic. We felt very safe!
Second night we spend in a beautiful hotel, a lot more luxurious then the home stay. We felt torn, as suddenly we were the rich westerners, our guide could not stay in the same hotel and we felt we are sleeping behind walls, cut off from the real Vietnam once again. On the other hand it was an amazing hotel, with fabulous river views, which we really enjoyed. And it was our last night in Vietnam…
Next morning 8am, were ready for the third day of cycling. And what a last day it should be! After 15mintues drive, we were on the paths again.
We stopped at a majestic Khmer pagoda and a coconut processing “plant” in the middle of nowhere. Again: you would not find it were you on your own!
After 20 km our 9 year old son was complaining that he was getting tired, it was a very hot day again, and a few km later he had an accident… He flew over his cycle and bumped his knee so badly that he could not cycle any longer.
But: it could have been worse and we met the nicest people who helped him clean up, put ice on the knee and organised for him to be taken to our next stop on the back of an old man’s motorcycle. He had a ball!
Summarising we would recommend this tour to everybody!
It was exciting, beautiful and one of the best things we have ever done to get to know a part of a country better.
In closing I would like to add, that you don’t have to be particularly fit, as it is always flat and mostly overshadowed by palm trees.
It does get very hot at times, so you need to be generally healthy and have to make sure you stay hydrated.
Also, I would only recommend the tour for not too small children (maybe over the age of 8 or 9) and only if they have cycled extensively, preferably in some traffic, before. As the paths are quite narrow and cracked at times, you have to make sure they know how to react when a motorcycle overtakes or comes from the front.