Ha Tien was our chosen last Vietnamese city before crossing into Cambodia. We'd had it marked on the map as a place of interest before we even arrived in Vietnam, mainly because from here you can catch a ferry to the enormous island of Phu Quoc.
In the end, though, we were down to just a couple of days — we'd been taking our time through Vietnam — so we scrapped the idea of the island and left our island experiences for neighbouring Cambodia.
Ha Tien is a quiet, peaceful place with very little tourism and a distinctly traditional feel. The near-absence of tourists creates two very different situations: on one hand, vendors who sell at local prices with no haggling needed; on the other, a handful of opportunists who've spotted the tourist angle and are determined to squeeze out every last dollar.
We were quoted 300,000 dong for a windowless, bathroom-less room in the middle of nowhere on one occasion — yet on another, we bought a kilo of sweet, yellow, utterly delicious bananas for 6,000 dong, and exquisite fresh fruit juices with several spoonfuls of condensed milk for 10,000 dong.
For reference: 1 euro was worth about 27,000 dong at the time — so 6,000 dong is 21 euro cents, and 10,000 dong is about 36 cents.
Fresh fruit at the Ha Tien market
To reach Ha Tien from Can Tho we had to stop in Rach Gia — a flash visit; an hour and a half after arriving we were already on another bus heading to Ha Tien.
During our two days in town we explored the markets, wandered the streets taking photos of the locals, and ate at the cheapest prices we found anywhere in Vietnam.
Fish market in Ha Tien
Vietnamese girl at the fish market
A girl playing on an old motorbike
We also spent some time working out how to cross the border: on foot, by motorbike or by minibus — something we'll cover in our next post.
