3 day motorcycle tour, Loving Mekong delta (option to Phu Quoc island)

A 3 day tour is to explore the Mekong delta. You will be driving on back roads mostly through villages away from the tourist track and discover the real life of people living along this magic river. Loving Mekong delta is an adventurous journey where you will fall in love with waterways, back roads, culture and heritage in this area.

Highlights

• Floating markets, floating villages along Mekong river
• Riding along narrow tracks, maze of back roads and waterways
• Local customs and cuisines

Tour includes

• • Tour guide and drivers for passengers
  • Saigon Riders’ motorcycles
  • Entrance fees, boat tickets
  • Hotels (double/twin shared) (extra $40/night for a single room)
  • Lunches (other food choices are also catered, including vegetarian dishes)

Tour excludes:

• Bike damage (e.g. broken levers, heavily bent rims/handlebars/frame, burnt out clutch plates due to improper gear use)
• Insurance, emergency transportation, related costs
• Tips to guide.

Planned route

Day 1:
• Distance: 210 km
• Accommodation: Fortuneland hotel (www.fortunelandhotel.com)

Riding pillion with our drivers to escape from Saigon to the off-road, we delve deep into the Ben Tre province of southern Vietnam and explore the Mekong delta. Driving back roads mostly through villages away from the tourist track and discover the real life of people living along this magic river. We take quiet laneways and dirt paths weaving in and out of villages and fields waving to kids whizzing by on their way to school, saying “Xin Chao” (hello) to women pedaling gracefully in their traditional “ao dai” dresses, and hopping onto small ferries to cross the tributaries alongside elderly vendors carrying groceries on their bikes.

Later we board our private boat and cruise past some interesting places such as old-style brick kiln before stopping at a coconut processing workshop where you learn step by step how the locals waste nothing from the coconut tree in making a variety of products, handicrafts, and candy. Transferring to bicycle we cycle along trails under the green canopy of coconut plantation before stopping for a pleasant lunch of local specialties, including delicious “Elephant Ear fish”. After lunch, we will row a sampan along the tree-lined canals to get a closer look at life.

Day 2:
• Distance: 190 km
• Accommodation: Hung Cuong hotel (www.hungcuonghotel.vn)

We continue to explore the waterways with a morning boat ride to the bustling Cai Rang floating market, one of the biggest in the Mekong delta. As we weave amongst the anchored boats, we’ll see vendors line up their boats and hang fruit or vegetables on a bamboo pole advertising the goods they are selling. Moving on from the floating market we will visit an inland market to compare the differences as well as noodle factory nearby.

After that, it’s time to explore the land with a motorbike ride through farming villages and small laneways on the way to the border town of Chau Doc. This area is inhabited by Vietnamese as well as people from the Khmer and Cham ethnic groups, part of the rich tapestry of ethnic minorities in Vietnam, their customs and traditions enriching the culture and so often seen in their houses, pagodas, mosques. We will also see some of the product that is exported worldwide and that people here are proud of – rice and Basa fish. After lunch, we explore the fishing village and fish farms. The day is completed by panoramic sunset views over the Mekong Delta floodplains from the summit of Sam Mountain.

Day 3:
• Distance: 120 km

We drive to the coastal town of Ha Tien. On the way there we’ll stop at Tra Su bird sanctuary, low land national park with mangrove forest as far as the eye can see, interwoven with canals and many thousands of birds. We’ll also stop at the site of the Ba Chuc massacre which was carried out by the regular army of Democratic Kampuchea’s army, the Khmer Rouge, in 1978. After that, we’ll move onto Ha Tien where you will board a speed boat at noon to Phu Quoc island.

Additional information

• We recommend sturdy outdoor clothing and comfortable footwear
• We highly appreciate tips for Saigon Riders tour guide, drivers

Route of the journey