Ky An Hotel Chau Doc

... just outside of Chau Doc which was great fun as we got to feed the fish (who went mental when food was thrown in!). There are loads of houses floating on the river and they keep fish to sell. The fish are kept in cages below the house as they thrive in their local environment and are easy to keep. We were also shown round a house where they make shawls (you saw the lady on her loom).

... and then simply stamped me out. All took about 3-5minutes. Simple. From there I walked through no-mans-land about 5-600yards to the Vietnam passport checking, this was a slightly different approach to what I had just witnessed. Even though I had got the visa already, I had to fill out loads of forms in the heat of the day, being 1pm in the afternoon. I couldn't stop sweating, my shirt was dripping and the forms were covered in moisture. Beads of sweat kept falling and ...

... we had to make up the time and really wanted to explore the Mekong Delta in the south. <br>So we flew to Saigon and spent an interesting night in the markets and having dinner at one of the many food stalls. Saigon was fascinating, with a completely different vibe to Hanoi, and definately somewhere I would like to go back to. <br>The next stop was Chau Doc, on the border with Cambodia. We arranged with a lovely vietnamese man who was the owner of the local english book shop to take us out ...

Yesterday I took a taxi from Can Tho to get to the border. On the way, we decided to stop at a stork sanctuary. It was another boat ride up a canal of the river to get to the sanctuary. It seemed like a good idea at first. Then, as we approached the sanctuary and heard the hundreds of birds nesting in the canopy of trees above us and saw how white everything was on the banks and ground, I started to think again but there was no ...

... hopped off the boat and followed our guide Lan, replying to the numerous shouts of "Hello" . A few hundred yards down the road, Lan showed us around the local market. So many different kinds of fruit, vegetables and fish were on offer. At times we had to tip toe around fish that had lept out of their containers onto the floor. The smells were also incredible, some good and some a little bit nasty. Durian (or jack fruit) has to be the smelliest fruit ...

... So when he asked me if I wanted to go out again in the morning to see the floating markets I said yes. I was filthy when I got back, the kind of dirty where if you draw your finger across your skin you get thick, black, grease come off. No, you don't know what I mean? Great. I'll take a picture next time! I went for a shower and realised my perfect hotel was even better than I thought. Hot water! I can't tell you how good that feels, it's been a while! At ...

... America and wasn't particularly interested. I did wonder though at the meat eaters who ran out in horror, where did they think pork came from? I don't run away when I see a carrot being picked. However, I couldn't help thinking that it seemed a little strange that a tour like this included the slaughtering of a pig. It turned out that the slaughter was not the primary purpose of our visit, seeing the pig butchered was just a bonus, at no extra cost. Whilst two blokes worked feverishly ...

... go out in the boat all night and need to rest during the day but even in Hanoi and HCMC (where there is no ocean closeby) you see them justing hanging out at all times of day and night. The women are rarely seen doing this. I hate to say it but the men strike me as lazy.<br>&gt; Spring Rolls... they are WAY better than the ones we get back home... I kid you not!!<br>&gt; Tofu... not a big fan of it previously but grew to love it in Vietnam.<br>&gt; Horking (aka ...

... wheeled bicycle with a seat for passengers) and walked to the tour office. So far we have been on the move for 6 hours and have another 4 hours until we get to Ho Chi Minh City (or so we thought). We saw a sign saying that the minivan would take 6 hours and the tour guide confirmed that it would. ****! I used the toilet there and had a cold water, Bill had his first Saigon Beer. I am noticing that there are only motorbikes and commercial vehicles on the ...

... stirred them up. Finally, I turned the bedroom lights off, turned the bathroom lights on, and they all migrated in there. By the morning, the floor of the bathroom was covered. <br><br><br><br>The next day was spent mostly chugging up the Mekong, crossing the border, and then making are way slowly down the nonexistent streets of Cambodia towards Phnom Penh.