Long Chau Resort Chau Doc

... Doc! We walked around and checked out the temples and pagodas but not much else. It was lovely weather so we just enjoyed that. Oh, they do have a nice market where they have a cake stall that sells local cakes for about 13p. Mmm&#8230;<br><br>We then said our goodbyes to Vietnam and headed into Cambodia. <br><br>On our journey into Cambodia, we saw the floating fishing ...

... cocktail then realised that it had started to rain and our cyclo riders where waiting for us, looking out the window we could see one of them putting on his "mua" jacket. We decided to invite them both in for a drink, he said he'd taken loads of people there, but never been inside, so it was really nice to have a drink with them out of the rain.<br><br>The next day we had to head to Phnom Penn - Cambodia so hit the hay.<br>

... well-off compared to people living and working in off the beaten track areas, who see few tourists, so that is where we try to spend a little extra on buying handicrafts and food etc.<br>As we had spent longer than planned travelling through North Laos and Vietnam (see last entry), we had to make up our time somehow, so we made the decision to fly from Hanoi straight to Saigon. By doing this we missed out the massive central part of Vietnam, which many people say are the nicest parts ...

We were only there for half the day. The whole group went for a trip to a nearby mountain on the back of scooters! It was great fun, it was about a 6k journey to the top. once there we sat down a watched the sun set over Vietnam. The next day we had a 8 hour bus ride to our next destination. <br>

... from Hanoi<br><br>Best Bits:<br>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 ?<br>

... dotted across the surface and the people of the river were coming home, eating dinner and playing together. Every house we passed the people would wave and shout Xian Chou at us &amp; I had event management jaw from grinning so much. The houses are amazing, tiny and ramshackle but all have a garden of some description and are decorated beautifully. I got on well with Nam and he gave me free Vietnamese lessons so I can now say, boat, dog, oars and ...

... on the mystery tour. We arrived at these places and just had to guess what it was all about because sometimes it wasn't exactly obvious. We walked into a shed where two blokes were holding down a pig, about to cut its throat. You could have heard the poor bugger squealing all the way back to Saigon. Some people ran out in disgust, others hung around entranced, clearly having never witnessed such a thing before. I'd recently seen all manner of animals being publicly slaughtered in ...

... two older women walking with their arms linked, men walking with their arm around another's shoulder or a teenage boy standing behind another with his arms wrapped around his neck. It's special to see this closeness of companions.<br>&gt; Men sitting around... everywhere you look the men are sitting around... either waiting for a fare in their cyclos or taxis or having a bia hoi with the boys or just lazing in a hammock. I can see it if you're a fisherman and ...

... roof. There were lots of people along the waterfront too - naked kids, swimming, doing laundry, fishing, bathing, washing water buffalo,... I saw my first field of corn in SE Asia. We crossed under the monkey bridge. It is called that because if you do not concentrate, you will fall into the water. It was made of tree trunks and had slats like a ladder . There was not much to it. We arrived in Chau Doc, Vietnam after 3:00. Our bags were loaded onto a cyclo ...

... much to see, and I had dinner with a couple of Aussies. When I got back to my room, my Japanese roommate was in bed staring at two lights on the wall and making this "Ahhh" noise. The lights and wall around them were covered with the rice flys. I took out my 100 percent DEET insect repellent, which really should not be legal, and sprayed them, but that ...