Trung Nguyen Hotel Chau Doc

We went to Chau Doc to climb Sam Mountain&#8230; It turns out Sam Mountain is more like a hill! Still, it was fun to climb. It was a scorcher of a day so it felt like a great workout, plus there are some great views from the top (on the right was Vietnam and on the left was Cambodia). We also met the most adorable Vietnamese kids on the way up&#8230; <br><br>And that's about it in ...

... to drive and I had never driven a manual motorbike before, and partially because it was time for one of the thrice yearly rice harvests that they have in the Mekong Delta (compared to two in the north). This meant that the roads had temporarily become drying beds for the rice, with a small gap, if at all, for vehicles to pass. Sometimes there was no gap and we were gestured to drive over the rice - so remember people, always wash your rice before you cook it! Other obstacles along the way ...

... in the centre of town, is beautiful colours and there was a pond in the centre and a woman selling fish &amp; tiny turtles to put in the pond (naturally she was selling these from a tank on the back of her bicycle). The market was mad &amp; everywhere I went people pointed at me, laughed out loud and called me over. It was clear that the best tourist attraction in town was me! One woman selling betel nut, called me over, stroked my hair and then grabbed ...

... they'd deserted the tour. As you would expect, the action in all these Mekong River towns is along the riverfront. Despite the squalor and poverty in the rest of the town, the riverfront will be decked out with promenades, statues and dozens of courting couples. It's very pleasant. We had to be up very early the next morning to visit a floating market. It took two small boats to transport us up river to another town where the market was conducted in the middle of the river on small ...

... things like this??? In every restaurant there were toothpicks on the table and most often in lovely little wooden holders either inlaid with mother-of-pearl or delicately carved.<br>&gt; Lemon juice... it's actually what we would call lime juice (fresh) with a hint of sugar... it's SO refreshing!<br>&gt; Baguettes... and the many other French influences. I certainly do miss brown bread though (and brown rice for that matter).<br>&gt; Bicycles... my love of cycling ...

... 9:10. We have a driver and a stewardess who has a cooler of drinks and snacks for sale. The seats were plastic and were fastened to the floor, so we could not move them around even though the boat was a little more than half full. We were even able to purchase some dong with US dollars. We were able to get $1 USD for 17,000 dong. The Mekong was quite wide and there was not a lot to see, just the occasional house, some kids swimming and a few fishermen ...