Our good friend Mary has joined up with us in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC or Saigon). She arrived safely late at night and we were on the go from the moment we got up in the morning. No jet lag for her! It's so nice having someone with whom I can chat and giggle. It gives Jim more time to be alone and it's nice for us to have a fresh face in the mix.

Wow!! What a bustling city Saigon is! We thought the traffic of Phnom Penh was crazy. Well, Saigon's is faster, there is more of it, far fewer bicycles, no tuk-tuks and more aggression. I made the mistake of doing what I would naturally do when stepping out in traffic and realizing it was unsafe - I bee-lined it back to the curb. This, however, in Saigon is a big no-no because the traffic is always moving like water and fills in anywhere there is a gap. So in that moment of panic as I headed back to the curb I collided with a motor scooter. Luckily for both of us, the driver had slowed down and reacted quickly so he was hardly moving. His passenger had jumped off the bike and all I got was a bruise on my arm and a good lesson. In my hand was a piece of paper with directions to the restaurant we were heading off to. In all that confusion, somehow I managed to get hit, drop the tiny sheet of paper, bend over and pick it up off the street and return to the curb without getting bowled over a second time. We had one of the best meals we have had on this trip that night. It was worth it...

A day trip down to the Mekong Delta proved to be comprised primarily of transportation - bus, boat, different boat, another different boat, one more different boat and a bus with a few local sites thrown in. Probably not that bad if you like tours which we typically don't.

Vietnam, at least so far as we have seen and read, is filled with entrepreneurs. Everyone is working diligently and trying to sell something. And the country appears to be prospering from this orientation. We shall see as we travel more of the country.