Chau Pho Hotel Chau Doc

After crossing the vietnam border, we checked in toa luxourious hotel in Chau Doc- I even had to take a photo of the bathroom- times have become desperate!!

Went out on a boat trip along the Mekong River stopping at a fish farm and floating market which was basically in someone's living room!!

Had a nice dinner on the river front for Sarah's birthday but had a fairly early night as a long bus journey ahead of us tomorrow to get to Saigon.

... rowing boat complete with be-hatted Vietnamese woman as our Captain. She rowed us elegantly towards a fish farm in the middle of the Mekong. We had a 'touristy go' at feeding the fish which got very over excited at our visit. They flapped madly and soaked us. Mid flap my eyes met another's across the isolated floating fish farm. I soon realised it was Lou, with her husband Phil, that we had shared a cabin with between Russia and Mongolia. Random ...

... me point out that we might actually get it back...!!!! 15mins later I got a thumbs up for the guy and said the driver was on his way back with the wallet.. The driver returned with my wallet which he had put an elastic band around and everything was were it should be. Happy days and a happy tip to the driver and the guy at reception.. Out of gratitude we ended up staying at the guys guesthouse which didnt turn out to be that bad.

... at speaking vietnamese. They had a field day with our camera, the children were particularly fascinated by the fact that our camera was waterproof and wanted photo after photo of them splashing about in the sea, never mind the stunning sunset I was trying to take pictures of!
We returned to Chau Doc a different way, stopping at Ba Chuc, a skull pagoda for the victims of a particularly barbaric Khmer Rouge attack. The drive back was more challenging, partially because it was my ...

... from Hanoi

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In Vietnam everything looks like it should be a postcard, glimpses of conical hats in rice paddies, water buffalo submerged in lotus ponds, the sun set in Halong Bay, Sunrise with hundreds of exercising Vietnamese in Nha Trang. We wonder, with Vietnam embracing tourism and the market economy and with a large proportion of Vietnamese being under thirty, will their culture and traditions be forgotten ?

... and we chatted about our amazing fairwell and also about our 3 days spent hangin with the Kidz......................we had definately all been affected by our time there............. for me lying in bed on that last night , all the farewells done and dusted , reflecting on my last 3 days , i couldnt help but see all the little happy beaming faces of the children as i closed my eyes to sleep.... - Yeah , thats what my experience feels like...........like a ...

Chau Doc was our leaving point from Vietnam. From here we took a boat along the Mekong into Cambodia. It was a long and sweaty day. The boat took 6 hours and the bus to Phom Penh, another hour or so (both boat and bus, very basic!). The first few hours of the trip were lovely, cruising along the river, checking out all the floating homes and the homes along the river bank. The river is obviously very important to ...

... amusement whilst others bordered on disgust and terror. Needless to say, no one knew why we'd disembarked. We were led along a footpath on the bank for about 15 minutes until we came to a crude bamboo bridge. Three or four pieces of bamboo strapped together and some bamboo handrails. The wire holding the bamboo together was rusted and the whole thing looked about ready to collapse any minute. It was strictly one person at a time. As I've mentioned earlier, the tour group were a mixed ...

As I road in the back of the cyclo to the docks where'd I'd soon be sailing down the Mekong into Cambodia, I thought about my incredible journey in Vietnam. I'd seen so many amazing things, met some incredible people (most of whom I hope to be in touch with for a lifetime) and had one memorable adventure after another. I realized at the very least that having cancer has taught me to take nothing for granted... to live each moment as if it's your last and to say 'why ...

... older man before we left the town though. A half an hour later we picked up another guy. After a while we stopped at a bus station and waited for a while. We ended up not picking anyone up. Further on our journey we were waved down by a family of 3, who talked really loud and the baby had a cold, and finally 1 additional guy. We ended up being a load of 11, so we never had to give up the seat beside us. I missed out on some of this because the gravol kicked ...