Saturday March 12, 2011

We were picked up in Saigon and transferred by a bus to the Pandaw ship, the RV Mekong Pandaw.  The port was approximately 72 km from Saigon but took almost 1.5 hours due to roads and traffic.  There are 9 million people in Saigon and they have 6.5 million registered motorbikes.

We arrived at the port around 13:30 and were met by the gracious ship's crew and fed lunch.  The meals have been excellent a combination of western or Asian food choices.  There are three Canadians on board, Sam and myself and a gentleman from Vancouver who turns out to be Ian Swan's second cousin.  For those that don't know Ian and I worked together at PSP and dealt with and travelled together fairly frequently.  Again another small world.

Today we only cruised to our first stop no excursions.