Thanh Dat Resort

I stayed here for two nights with a friend. We work in Saigon and had a long weekend so wanted just to get out of the city and not pay loads to get out and about. Firstly, Can Tho is about 4 hours drive from Saigon so leave EARLY in the day if possible. Be prepared for a bumpy ride as the roads aren’t great and the bus drivers are the most aggressive you’ll see in Asia. Might be a bold statement but it’s certainly what we felt. As you enter Can Tho you will have gone over two large bridges, one over the Mekong itself and another smaller pink one that looks very space age. You will have seen many of the tributaries and channels of the Mekong and noticed the flat la d of the delta. Do get a map to visualise the landform you are travelling into as it is quite dramatic. Can Tho as a town doesn’t have lots going on. It’s main thing is Mekong delta boat trips to see the floating markets at Cai Rang. They’re fine and enjoyable if you are happy with a super early rise, a busy harbour with many tourists and boat trip sellers hounding you to buy a ride on their boat. Expect to pay 50,000 dong per person for about a 4 hr trip. Another thing to prepare for if you are environmentally minded is the fact your boats propellers will jam up from the plastic pollution that floats by. Ours did twice, and we saw other boats similarly jammed. Perhaps take a bag to collect the plastic your boat driver cuts away from the propellers instead of letting him throw it back in the river, thus giving the message of trying to clean up the river for their businesses sake as well as the environments, and giving a free lesson in eco tourism whilst you’re at it. Hotel wise, ours was very cheap at approx 900,000 dong per night per person. We wanted cheap so our expectations were set accordingly. I wanted a quiet hotel, a clean hotel and a good bed. The hotel is quiet enough but some effort into signage asking for quiet and consideration for all guests in the outlying buildings could be an idea for the future if I was to make a suggestion to the hotel management. My hotel room was clean and my bed was hard but comfortable. A decent find and very much worth the money. A few little nags would be - quite hard to find and not very central, the staff were very helpful and considerate but perhaps a bit short staffed and having to do multiple jobs. The food offering wasn’t great. But then we weren’t there for dining experience, so no worries and hence the high rating.