Our bike trip through the Mekong was totally transformative

Two Day Bike Trip on the Mekong River

Planning our own Southeast Asia jaunt, we discovered Sinhbalo Adventures. Cong and his driver picked us up at our hotel in Saigon and stopped to show our daughters how rice grows out in the paddies before we hopped on bikes to pedal the Mekong River. From the dirt paths filled with the calls of children yelling “hello” to the precarious wooden bridges, we tasted new fruits, the rambutan and the durian. The rickety sampan boats and the deep, green of the jungle encroaching on the concrete block homes of the residents was an eye opening first day of biking. Women carried straw baskets on their backs and dried their banana pancakes on rows of leaves suspended over the Mekong.

Banana pancakes drying over the Mekong River

Children ran after us to give us gifts of kittens. Grabbing a day pack, we strode off with Cong to our homestay for the night to live dormitory style, falling asleep to crickets under our mosquito netting and roosters crowing us awake the next morning. Our host taught us how to make Vietnamese pancakes and vegetable spring rolls. Pedaling through Cai Be and Vinh Long, we floated down the Mekong by sampan to the largest floating market on the Mekong, the Cai Rang market. A woman offered us delicious Vietnamese coffee, Ca Phe Sua Nong for 50 cents a cup. After tasting pineapple and rose apples, we left the boat and biked to a Buddhist temple before stopping for a lovely lunch on the river. Cong drove us back to Saigon and we bid adieu to a most transformative two days.

Sinhbalo Adventure Travel, Ho Chi Minh City, sinhbalo.com

Rickety bridges over the Mekong River