Wet ride to Can Tho......

                 Rose at 6 for my contracted motor cycle taxi man to take me at 7am the HCMC west

Mekong River. The Heavens open  (for the next 8 hours)

station for my bus ride to Can Tho in the central Mekong River delta area. Said driver was a 'no show; and probably the pouring rain persuaded him to roll-over in bed and decide to forego his $5, 14 km trip to the bus station. No problemo!
              Wrapped up in my plastic honcho & clutching my two bags, soon piled onto the pillion seat of  a replacement bike. Rain just tipping down. Traffic in HCMC crowded and chaotic as ever, especially during morning rush hour. Don't forget, no traffic lights (and if there are, they are just ignored)--no stopping for anyone,

Young mans face---old mans beard.....

or anything. I could hardly see a thing as we hurtled along in pounding rain and flashing lightening. I am not sure what my pilot/driver could see as he was not sporting goggles or visor and nor was I sure what all the other million bike drivers on the street could see, But miraculously--the system works and in less than 30 minutes we were at my suburban bus station. Ten minutes more & the ticket purchase procedure was completed. After having been personally escorted to the correct bus out of 200 at the bus station, I found myself lying flat on my back in soggy clothes in  air-conditioned deep freeze, on a 'sleeper bus'. All told about 2 1/2 shivering hours bus travel time from HCMC to Can Tho, over a series of large modern bridges that span the

Someones dinner tonight!

many branches of the mighty Mekong at  it gets ready to meet the ocean.
                   Put down at the clean modern Can Tho bus station and, as is frequently the case, find that it is located 5-8 kms from the central city core. Short of a long, hot hike, one is forced into a taxi. Note that the last 5 taxi kms costs almost as much as the previous 150 km bus ride.
                  After hotel registration is complete, I have short walk to the river and admire its swollen proportions---a little higher and residents I could be bailing water from the hotel  lobby---we are only fifty metres or so back from the river bank. Yes, you guessed it...once again, and for the rest of the day, the heavens opened. Luckily there are several restaurants along the street and I downed a spaghetti bolognaise and a quick stroll through street market before beating a retreat  to the hotel for the rest of the day. Thank goodness for Youtube--- book reading in my rather dark & dingy, but clean hotel room ($17US/night) is an eye strain.