Day 41: Chau Doc - Cao Lanh - Frankie goes to.....Indochina

February 11, 2018

Day 41: Chau Doc - Cao Lanh

Routing: #951, 953, 942

What a nice day! Perfect morning session on the #951 and 953, much busier on the 942 but still a good afternoon. Before I left Chau Doc I had two more stops: The first one at the baguette lady round the corner from my hotel, the second one at the ATM of the Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), which doesn´t charge any fee for holders of visa cards"...issued by European banks". No idea who exactly can take advantage of this regulation but my German card did definitely not generate any extra fees. Good news if you are traveling for a bit longer.

Onlya few hundred meters from the bank to the ferry terminal where youpay 2000 dong at a counter and hand the receipt over to a guy sitting at the entry of the "waiting room". I really like using those ferries and the procedures here in Vietnam are well orchestrated. Over on the other side I turned immediately right onto the delightful #951, which turns into gravel after a few kilometers though. There I moved over to the #953 which runs parallel only a 100 meters further inland. Later on this road was called 951 again but this is irrelevant as you stay on the same road all the way through to the village of Phu Tan at the southern tip of what I would call a peninsula. Here I lost the route that I was determined to follow towards Cao Lanh as I wasn´t aware there are two ferry terminals. Not a problem as the # 942 would take me to the city with even one ferry crossing less. The only disadvantage of my route: A considerable increase in traffic but I am still happy with the way the Vietnamese motorists have been treating me so far. The 942 clings to the bank of the Mekong all the way with just one row of buildings between the road and the water for most of the time. As I said, more busy than further north but still very enjoyable. Before I forget to mention: That second ferry was 2000 dong as well, the third one over to Cao Lanh is free of charge for cyclists.

After this third river crossing it is another 5 km into town and I could hardly believe what I saw. A massive line of vehicles waiting to board that ferry, almost all the way up to Cao Lanh. Must have been related to it being Sunday afternoon as there was no other obvious reason. Not a time you would go that way on a bicycle anyway. It was almost getting dark when I got into town and therefore I chose the first hotel I found in a side street. And what a good pick the Central Royal Hotel (that´s what it is called on google maps) was. Immaculate room with fridge and aircon for 250000 dong. No sightseeing for me tonight, just some food at the end of another exciting day in Vietnam.

A large muslim community on the other side

I don´t know how many bridges I rode over today but this was the nicest one

Fish harvest. They took the baskets to a fleet of waiting scooters...

....who then rode them just over the street where the baskets were slid onto a barch

The Chinese like it a bit more pompous....

....while the ethnic Vietnamese do fortunately preserve the old wooden houses

The bridge over to Cao Lanh must be very close to its opening. Shame if the ferries would terminate their service

Several kilometers of vehicles waiting to get towards the ferry. Must have taken them hours.

Today's ride: 86 km (53 miles)
Total: 3,396 km (2,109 miles)

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