Day 16 Ho Chi Minh City

We departed Ho Chi Minh City at 12pm reversing our trek down the snake like Mekong River back to the South China Sea. This time the 50nm (90kms) would be in daylight so the view from my cabin’s balcony will be great.

Before we left though we got to watch the locals do some drill practice on the wharf.

The Captain was hoping to not have to go the long way down the river and take a more direct route. Unfortunately we were directed by the harbour master (or what ever they call them) to take the long way to avoid the construction of a new bridge.

We set sail on time at 12pm and we were reminded pretty quickly that this part of the river is a busy place.

Looks like these guys have stacked their boats to capacity. Not sure what the reeds would be used for.

Building Fire??

I noticed this smoke not too long after our departure. Hopefully the fire brigade got this under control quickly.

Late for an important date???

These guys were happy to see us (I think).

Lunch

Today’s lunch was an Asian Buffet, so thought it would be interesting to try. It was also a good excuse for a break from the transit.

Lots of interesting choices, unfortunately not as good as I was expecting. Still cured my hunger pangs.

Mekong River Transit Continues

Lunch was about the halfway point of the transit, the amount of traffic on the river started to wain a bit.

Navy and Coastguard Wharf

Whilst Vietnam doesn’t have that many ships in its Navy, they are pretty active in protecting their waters from intrusions of other nations and illegal fishermen. To do this they need smaller and faster vessels, no need for an aircraft carrier or cruisers.

Bridges

As the Mekong River snakes all over the place it prevents freedom of movement so there is a need to build bridges over its wide expanses.

The building of the bridges prevented us from taking the more direct route back to the South China Sea.

Ferry

Before there were bridges there we car ferries and there are few of them left plying their trade.

The further down the river we went, the less traffic, though there were still people using the river to move there produce around.

Told you it was a long trip…

But wait, there is more…

South China Sea

After about 3 hours we made it back to the South China Sea

It was time to say tạm biệt (goodbye) to Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City and to start our last leg of the cruise (well for me anyway) to Singapore. Thankfully there was one more day at sea before we would arrive in Singapore.