[Asia] South Vietnam

[P3rSeUs]

Has anyone been to the Mekong Delta area?
Any good tips for food, lodging and transportation?

What to take note for in pictures?

[barracuda]

You can see bump boats, fishing boats and ferries, and rustic houses along the mekong river. If you are looking for that rustic look, you should have plenty. The children there might be a good subject to you too. Their markets and streets provide visitors an interesting peek into the ordinary people's life. Good ingredient for street photography.

In terms of natural scenary, mekong delta does not offer much. The places are heavily polluted, the mekong river is muddy and dirty.

We booked a 2-day mekong delta tour with a tour company in Ho Chi Ming city for around USD$14.00. The guidebook we used (lonely planet, I think) said all tour companies bring you to similar places, and charge about the same price. I think it may be true, because we met many other tourists at the places we went to.

My personal opinion is that mekong delta is not worth spending 2 days there. Maybe 1 day is enough just for the 'feel' of it. 2 days is wasteful.

Just my 2 cents

[RW11]

Agree that the Mekong Delta (at least the part I visited) is not worth a 2 days trip especially from a photographic standpoint. The Tonle Sap in Cambodia near Siem Reap is much better in this respect.

[nuts]

On the contrary, my recommendation is go for 2 days

http://blog.roving-light.com/2008/06/mekong-delta.html

[enivre]

Originally Posted by P3rSeUs Has anyone been to the Mekong Delta area? Any good tips for food, lodging and transportation? What to take note for in pictures?

Yes I've been there. It's not easy to get around, nor is it easy to get lodging. Heck it's almost impossible to find someone that speaks english!

I found my way there via the usual day trip tours you can hire from Ho Chi Min City itself. The tour itself is your usual touristy stuff, drink coffee, see how sugar or sweets are made, etc etc.. quite boring. It was supposed to be a round trip but I asked the guide to leave us there so we could go find the guesthouse which we had made prior arrangements to stay at. A guesthouse which was by far the ONLY one in that whole area.

Through some insane stroke of luck + a few directions from the guide + a motorbike ride + a ferry ride, we met up with the guesthouse owner (the only person we knew of that could speak english in that area).

There we booked a private boat out into the delta, caught fireflies, watched the sun set while drinking Vietnamese coffee, visited villages that few tourists ventured to etc....

From there we stayed for 1-2 nights then hired another motorbike to get us to another "homestay" which ended up to be some chalet that caters to vietnamese locals, we did manage to visit some villages along the way but felt a little ripped off because they didn't understand what we wanted to see. Floating market became just some river side houses that sold stuff to tourists etc etc.

Trusting our motorbike riders completely, they managed to bring us back to a bus depot which then brought us back to Ho Chi Min.

Overall it was quite an adventure, but photographically speaking, the delta didn't offer me A LOT. Sure there were photos to be taken, but I think there are other areas of Vietnam which are more photogenic.

[astroboy]

U might have better luck to stay just 1 day in HCMC for R&R and then head further up north to places like Muine, Nha Trang or Hoi An (in central).

I'm planning a trip along those routes in couple of months so drop me a note if you want to join us. But it's really hot around this time of the year.

[P3rSeUs]

wow.. thanks for all the advice.

Actually, I'm arriving from Chau Doc (thru a river ride from Phnom Penh). Then from there, work my way to Can Tho and to HCMC.
Not the usual HCMC-Mekong Delta tour, I'm afraid.

Guess it's more towards street photography than scenery there eh? I tot the delta offers a nice scenic view..
Worrying more about getting around now. Not much resources on the web either... Will see how things go.. =)

[Shen siung]

IC. From Cambodia you follow a tour to the Delta?
From HCMC, I found there are tons of info about the trip to delta. Usually only got 2 type: 1 day and 2 days. Both start and return to HCMC.

The tour I join is completely fine for me. The tour guide speak fairly good English, compare to the one in Hanoi. And I'm choosing the cheap cheap tour.

But, all tour are very commercial / touristy type. If you like to photograph whole day on your own pace, this is not suitable.

also, it could be difficult for you to go there alone / tour there alone, as you do not know the correct direction.

However, if you like to be adventures, read up the lonely planet guide book, they cover quite detail about the delta, which makes you almost possible to go there alone without follow trip