After about a three hour bus ride we arrived at the start of our cycling trip through the Mekong Delta. At one of the toilet stops on the way we bumped into some people we knew from Lindfield. Small world.

Our guide was a local called Tan, who provided us with a lot of insight into Vietnamese culture on the way. He was a funny guy although a bit chauvinistic.

Cycling through the Mekong Delta gives you a great view of local life you wouldn't get on a bus tour. The roads are so narrow, mostly only a metre wide and winding through small villages and homes positioned around small tributaries of muddy brown water. It is incredibly lush and green and it supports a a whole economy of cottage industries that feed off each other and are relatively self sufficient.

Although not as many as in HCMC there is a regular stream of motorbikes on the road passing in both directions. It is interesting sharing a one meter wide path with motorbikes, particularly on the many narrow bridges over the water.

We stopped in on one particular family that specialized in making rice paper wrappers. With some translation help from our guide we were able to interact with them very well. It was a very rewarding experience and they were very interested in how old our kids were - and how big they were compared to theirs. The ladies took a particular liking to Lachlan, commenting through the interpreter that he would be a movie star if he were in Vietnam.

As we rode through the various villages the locals would run out and call out "hello". They were delighted that we returned the greetings. Sometimes you could hear kids screaming hello from a hundred meters away.

After the first 18km we loaded our bikes onto a boat and headed to a restaurant for lunch. The restaurant was deep into preparations for a wedding, which for Vietnamese is a three day affair so there is lots to do. We were served some fantastic meals, the showpiece being the Elephant-ear fish served upright on a plate. You eat it by scraping the flesh off the fish and eating it in rice paper rolls.

After another boat ride and another 17km of riding we loaded our bikes back onto the bus and travelled for about an hour before getting on a boat to get to our home stay.

The home stay was a pleasant surprise as it had a separate section set aside for westerners. The beds were curtained off, raised off the ground and fitted with mosquito nets. We were expecting open plan and hard floor so this was a nice surprise. As an added bonus we were also able to have a shower before dinner.