2 day Mekong Delta option 2

2 DAY MEKONG TRIP : SAIGON – CAI BE – VINH LONG – CAI BE – SAIGON

Highlights of the trip:

• Get interactions with the real locals
• Beautiful boat trips passing by local areas
• Get the true feel of the local way of life

DAY 1: SAIGON – CAI BE – VINH LONG  – OVERNIGHT IN HOMESTAY 

Inclusions: Private transport, guide, boat trip, fruits, lunch, dinner, homestay rooms     

Estimated timings:

• Saigon to Cai Be boat station: 2 hours
• Cai Be boat trip + lunch : 3 hours
• Cai Be cruise to Vinh Long for homestay check in: 1 hour

Detailed activities:
At your chosen time (suggested 8.00 AM), our guide and car pick you up and then drive towards the Mekong Delta. The chosen tourist attraction is Cai Be town of Tien Giang province. Enjoy the green and peaceful sceneries and lively daily activities of the local people.
10,00 AM, Upon arrival at Cai Be boat station, our guide will take you to enjoy the private boat trip around the Mekong river passing by local places.

The boat trip will take you to visit the following places:

• Stop at a local family on Tan Phong island to enjoy some tropical fruits and Don Ca Tai Tu, which is a kind of folk music and a UNESCO intangible heritage of Vietnam.
• Visit a local family’s fruit garden to witness in person how some common fruits are on their trees.

NOTE:

• we don’t promise exactly which type of fruits you will see. It depends on the season but there are usually durians, jack fruits, pomelos, rambutans, mangoes, guavas.
• You can pick the fruits and pay a fee but this won’t be promised in advance. You will get to know one day before or on arrival.

• Enjoy a 15 minute sampan ride along a small canal to get the true feel of the real locals’ way of life. Sampan is a small boat made of 3 wooden panels and manually rowed by the locals.
• After that, get on your private boat and move to Vinh Long province in about one hour. Enjoy lunch at a local family with great Vietnamese cuisine food in an open air fruit garden.

• After lunch, get back to the boat and continue the cruise to a local homestay for checkin
• After check in, just relax by your own way.

Options for you to join:

• Experience making a local cake named “JACK FRUIT LEAF CAKE” with the locals. It’s a cake made of rice flour on jack fruit leaves and dip in coconut milk
• Rent a bicycle to stroll around the peaceful village with a local guide.
• Swim at the pool of the homestay.

After all, enjoy dinner at the homestay at 7.00 PM

The rest of the day is on your own.

DAY 2 – VINH LONG – CAI BE – SAIGON 

Inclusions: Private transport, English speaking guide, boat trip,  lunch, water

Enjoy a simple buffet breakfast at the homestay with bread, eggs, butter, jam, fruits, coffee and tea.

Suggested timings: 

8,00 AM – check out the homestay and get back to our private boat for another water excursion.

This excursion will take you to visit the following things:

• 8,30 AM: A brick factory : where you get to know how the locals produce bricks, pottery vases and pots.
• Cruise back to Cai Be in one hour.
• 10,00 AM, Visit a local family making baskets, bags and hats from water hyacinth – a natural weed on the river.
• 11,00 AM, visit a traditional handicraft village where you witness how the locals produce Rice Paper, Popped Rice, and Coconut Candy. This is a great time for you to understand the real local culture and way of life.

• 12.00 PM, finish the boat trip and we will get back to our bus and move for lunch
• 1.00 PM, Enjoy lunch at a local restaurant
• 2.00 PM, get back to bus and drive back to Saigon
• 4.00 PM, arrive Saigon and the trip ends.

TRIP INCLUSION CLARIFICATION: 

• Private 7-16- 29 – 45 seater bus matching the number of travelers with professional driver 

• Guide is guaranteed to speak great English, to be intensive in history, to have pleasant and friendly manners.

• Private Boat trips for day 1 and 2 with life jackets 
• Lunch for day 1 and 2
• Dinner for day 1

• Homestay rooms with aircon and indoor toilet, 02 persons/room

• 02 bottles of water each day per person

• Entrance fees to all places
• Small tips for boat captain, sampan rowers, and local singers.

• Travel insurance valued at 200,000,000 per case (2 hundred million VND) – only for accidents, injuries and food poison during the trip 

TRIP EXCLUSIONS:

• Tips for guides and drivers (customary 3USD per person per day)

• Ordering drinks during included meals 
• Ordering drinks during the night stay at the homestay

• Other expenses

*** AGREEMENTS AND COMMITMENTS:  

• The trip is promised not to be much touristy and to focus more on local experiences
• Included lunch/dinner  is a set menu with 5-6 courses cooked in Vietnamese style (steamed, stir fry, braised, soup, salad). The commonly served dishes are vegetable salad, deep-fry elephant ear fish with rice paper, steam shrimps with coconut juice, simmered fish in clay pot, sour soup with fish, braised pork, chicken with lemon grass and chicken, steam rice, ice tea and fruits for dessert.
• Set menu meals can be adjusted to meet all guests’ strict dietaries and vegetarian foods.

• The timing and order in the daily plan for private tours is just suggestion, please feel free to change/adjust as long as it doesn’t cause extra costs.
• The order of daily visiting sites can be reordered and changed due to subjective conditions like river tide, traffic and weather.
• Tipping is customary in Vietnam and it’s suggested  3 USD per person per day for both drivers and guides.