It felt strange being back in HCMC, we got taxi back to where we stayed last time and once again the cheap rooms were all full and we were only offered expensive rooms - it didnt take us long to find a cheaper room. We had dinner and then headed to the trusty GO2 bar. We were sitting chatting when it all of a sudden sounded like there had been a crash, as we popped heads outside bar you could see two local girls fighting a few bars down. People started to gather on the street and then bottles became involved. At this point to guys stepped in to try and break it up but it turned into a massive brawl - we felt rather uncomfortable so decided to grab the bill and move on - just as we were doing so a truck of Vietmanese police rocked up with batons and they charged into the building it was happening in. We had seen enough action for one night so went home and watched a movie on tv.

Sat 18th invovle us going on a boat trip up the Mekong Delta - we were on the bus there and got chatting to an old man from Melbourne (we were the youngest on the trip by about 15years) who was lovely if not a bit weird. Anyway the Mekong river was filthy - a browny orange colour with all sorts floating in it. Ourfirst stop was at a cocounut candy making villiage so we learnt how they make these sweets from scratch and got free samples. the ladies who worked there had incredibly nimble hands and could wrap these little sweets up in seconds. Second stop was at a honey making arm although it sounds a lot more interesting that it was - we didnt really learn that much. As we were sitting trying honey tea, the tour guide brought out a massive python - we stayed well clear as mel is petrified of snakes but some people were holding it and having photos etc taken!

To get to the farm we had to go on smaller boats thriugh little jungly canals whcih was real interesting. As we reached our destination on an island for lunch, we saw a water buffalow in one of the canals - it was very unusual as we had seen them all over Vietnam but never actually in the canal, it looked so cute. After lunch we got a ride in an even smaller baot that held 4 tourists and two locals who were the padelers! we all had to wear traditional conical hats which was awesome as we had wanted to trysome on since arriving in V. The last stop was on another island where local people played us traditional music - it was awful it sounded like you had given a group of kids a musical instrument they had never seen before! On the trip we made friends with a couple also from Melbourne -they must have been in their 60s but they were so lovely - they even gave us their business card and said we can go stay with them in Melbourne hehe

Sun 19th -we woke up rather excited this morning as we were leaving Vietnam and heading to Cambodia. Our bus was from HO chi Minh to Phnom Penh and would take 6hours. so we exchangd left over dong back into dollars as thats the main currency in Cambodia, bought snacks fro bus trip and off we went. We were sat with 4 other British people on the bus trip - we all hit it off and chatted the whole way there. It was really ad to be leaving Vietnam and hard to believe that we had already finished one country of our trip - time is flying by and we are still having a ball.

Love to all

Mel and Gill xxxx