The Mekong Delta slowboat ticket business office was at the best of the pier, and it was a really uncomplicated transaction – all I desired was my passport and the rate in hard cash. I was assigned a seat variety, even though in apply these are arbitrary. Listed here there was a little bit of ready, but I utilized the possibility to laden myself with treats at the nearby stall – one thing I’d hugely endorse, as there aren’t exactly outlets on the river. I also launched myself to a couple of of my fellow travellers, some of whom were on organised team excursions and some solo-travelling.
The boat remaining all around eleven, but it’s superior to board a minor before. You want to be near the entrance or middle, as the engines are at the back and are deafening plenty of to convert this idyllic journey into a thing entirely a lot more tense. Some boats have fairly uncomfortable wooden pew-kind seats, whilst some have chairs repurposed from coaches, so a travel pillow can be very handy. Mine was the previous, and it did suggest a good deal of shifting from cheek to cheek, but for the price tag it was additional than cosy ample. Whilst the real trip down the river is fairly clean, the boat rocks fairly substantially for the duration of passenger boarding and cargo loading, so if you’re a little bit nervous about sailing you could possibly want to get ready yourself.
Whilst it had only been a number of brief several hours considering that I’d woken up, I felt like I’d now packed in multiple days’ well worth of travelling. But now I understood I could sit again, chill out, and acquire in the river surroundings. The mother nature of the boat suggests shade and a constant breeze to fight the pulsing Southeast Asian sun, so it was a pleasurable journey from the getgo. Though my environment had been a delight, the sights had been rather regular all through the to start with working day, so I received via a number of webpages of my e-book. Even so, I also experienced a deck of playing cards, quite possibly the most practical item any traveller can have if they want to socialise. The cards speedily built me preferred among the other passengers searching for anything to do, and shortly there were a couple of distinctive groups of us all having to know every other.