Day 84 (Thursday 28th Feb 08)

Lazy morning but sleepless night. Checked out of our room at 12noon, had some lunch and used the internet until the bus came at 2pm. Waited around for a while as nothing over here is ever on time! Then finally told by someone which bus we were meant to be on and it was a sleeper bus even though we had only paid for seated. Soon realised that the bus was already full but there were still loads of us with nowhere to sit. Were told we would be transferred further down the road so we all sat in the aisles between the sleepers thinking that there would be little chance of changing buses and we would be like that the whole way. Yet again in Vietnamese style we then still stopped to pick up more people. Luckily though they had been telling the truth and we changed buses further down the road to a seated bus. Very old and skanky bus! Very slow journey and arrived in Ho Chi Minh City at about 7:30pm (an hour and a half late) Em having had her legs bitten to pieces! Looked around to try and find somewhere to stay going into a few places and looking at rooms. Eventually found a clean room and lugged our backpacks up the 5 floors. Very hungry so went out to find some food. Back for a quieter night sleep.

Day 85 (Friday 29th Feb 08)

Up and out of the hotel early and for some breakfast. Went to the STA travel office we had spotted the night before. Booked the bus for Cambodia for Sunday, got a map and went off on our way to walk around the sights. Walked up to see the Notre Dame Cathedral and then the General Post Office. Had a look in the Diamond Plaza and then carried onto the Renuification Palace getting bugged along the way by the cyclo drivers. Impressive building walked around most of it and headed outside for a drink to cool down. Then headed onto the War Remenants Museum on the way seeing some puppies for sale. Horrible seeing them lying in the heat way to hot in tiny cages or with chains around their necks. Very interesting museum but some horrible pictures. Walked back to the Ben Thanh Market to have a look around and bought lots of things that we had resisted until now. Made our way back to the backpacker area and found something to eat. Booked the Mekong Delta day tour for tomorrow, then headed up our 5 flights of stairs after a tiring day to repack our bags to fit everything in!

Day 86 (Saturday 1st March 08)

Up very early after a sleepless night as Em thought she heard someone trying to get into the room. Went downstairs just before 7am to try to leave the hotel to go for some breakfast and be at STA for 7:15am for the tour and found everything was still locked up. There was a guy lying on the bench sleeping, where he spends every night and most places have someone there, and he let us out. Good breakfast and then waited to be picked up. Got a bus down to Mytho where we then got a boat. The boat dropped us off at the "Happy Island". We walked with our guide down to one of the houses where we stopped to try Honey and Mandarin Tea and some nibbles. Mark liked the peanut candy so bought some. Then tried some of the Banana Wine and Rice Wine - very strong!! Like a shot. Our guide said the Rice Wine is called "Happy Water" as when you drink this you forget all your problems and in fact everything and are happy! We were also shown the bees and a python. Some people then had the option of trying the snake wine. We decided against it as it looked disgusting. Walked along throught the island and after a while stopped at another house to try some of the fruits and listen to some of the music. Then it was on tiny wooden boats throught the canals back to our bigger wooden boat! We then moved onto Ben Tre. Here we were again put on smaller wooden boats and taken to be shown how they make the coconut candy. They also mentioned how they have a lot of rats which also like the coconuts so they get very fat and are a local specialty. Apparently they taste better than chicken. Here you can buy a kilo for $2 whereas back in the city they are apparently not as good and you can only buy one for $2. We were then shown how they make the coconut candy and got to sample some. It was really nice but very chewy and again suited Mark's sweet tooth very well so we bought some. Back to the boats we then started back towards our bigger boat. Our boat started off infront of the other 2 but then soon started slowing down with the engine smoking and eventually just stopped. The driver started stripping off and jumped over the side to pull off everything caught round the prop. Luckily we were then on our way again and dropped off where we had lunch. After lunch we had a nice lay in the hammocks. We then noticed another group of tourists that had come in and sat down. The guys then proceeded to choose a live snake from different bags. The head was then cut off with scissors and the blood drained into a glass, once all the blood had been drained they cut the snake in half and gutted it it then took away to cook. The guys that had paid for this then took it in turns to do shots of the snake's blood. Bloody weirdos! It was then back on our big wooden boat back to get the bus at Mytho. Bumpy couple of hours bus journey back to the city. Used the internet, had something to eat and back to the hotel.