"Hello my friends hello, just called to say hello" thank you mr neil diamond. Well its been such a long time since we spoke i thought id back date the blog to chau doc then post a new one with where we are now, any way last time we spoke i had got us off the bus in mui nei six k, yes, six kilometers short of where we were suposed to get off,( i have a wonderfull sense of direction, and a very patient and forgiving wife). With my tight yorkshire head on, i decided, (at the hottest part of the day) that a six kilometer walk was no problem for a fit young (danny stop laughing i am young) couple like us, fourteen killo backpack plus fourty degree heat plus six k = two broken, sweaty people, who the hotel staff knew were going no where, so wouldn't barter on the price of our room.
We stayed in mui nie for two rather uneventfull nights, oh apart from almost being killed by a coconut,(hev cursed us by saying they only fall at night, and it did) then moved on to siagon or ho chi mhin city, you choose, where we had already been some years earlier on honeymoon. The plan was a little nostalger, then on to can tho for the floating market and chau doc for the cambodian border.
We got off the bus in siagon, which was a very pleasant ride with no major problems or worries, instantly swamped by touts and tuk tuk drivers trying to bully you in to there hotel or tuk tuk, we walked on by with a smile and little else, then managed to spend the next fourty minutes looking at the worst rooms in ho chi mhin!! We needed a rest so retired to the pub, still with no room sucured we pulled out the trusty "BOOK" (which has been wrong and misleading every step of the way) to discover we were opposite a recomended hostel, joy, i left hev gaurding our two dollar fifty bottle of water, and legged over, returning five minutes latter with the dirrections to there "other" hotel (strangly neither one of us heard the "death march" bell ringing) so mid day heat, fifteen killo bags(still carrying a killo of sweat from mui nie) and off we set. The quistion is when, not if my wife smothers me in my sleep. Six millon flights of stairs to sit down in the worst room of the day, and agree to stay!! Enter gemma and matt and moden technology, the text read "we have a great room at a great rate right in the middle of eveything, one room left, you want it??" We were outa there like mercury, (the gods messanger not like the stuff in a thermometer) death march forgotten, a spring in our step and they were right. Matt and Gemma have this habit of finding really nice hotels at the right price, god love them this one was a peach. Down a dark alley sat the oasis that was our home for the next two days. Saigon is very much how we left it four years ago, hence the lack of any number of photos, (sorry, we'ave seen it before) so we booked bus tickets with mag (matt and gemma= mag) to can tho, to see the floating markets.

The most exciting thing about the bus trip to can tho was, we went on a ferry across the mighty mighty mekong. Can tho is one of the least remarkable places we have been to, if not for the floating market in near proximity this would just be another place on a map, a little harsh?? come over and tell me that im wrong!! The floating market trip was booked through the local crazy, who had followed us, and showed us some crap rooms, so the idea of booking a tour with her should have had bells ringing, she wanted twenty dollars for the four of us (which turns out is a good price) we said fifteen, we agreed on eighteen, after she calculated what we owed in dong, we paid fifteen dollars, everyone left happy.
The river trip started at six am and was to last five hours, the crazy met us at our hotel at five fifty and lead us to her friends boat, everything is going well, we set off , the boat didnt leak, super, the boat didnt sink, magic, the boat would have moved faster if it was powered by an aged flattulant dog with its arse hanging in the water.
The floatting market was great, the pictures prove it, but we couldnt buy any thing, or do anything other than slowly cruise past the boats selling there goods. We were slowly taken for breakfast at the drivers mates cafe/riverside resturant, which again was ace, the food was top notch, it was just the thought of the arse numbingly long trip back to where we had boarded, it had taken three hours to get to the resturant, and that was with the current! At quater to one we left our driver, her boat and her aged flattulant hamster and wadled off for lunch. That evening was to be the last with mag so we went for a meal, drinks and to find the worst bar in can tho, which is the kareoke bar, they dont understand that kareoke isn't just a cool word, no one spoke english, now i know im in vietnam and why should any one speak english?? because you advertized you'r bar in english to atract english speaking customers!!! We sang along to brian addams whilst trying in vain to explain the ingredients for a G and T, they turned off the western music and failled to produce a G and T, we drank beer and made our own entertainment (see pics of floating market, last few).
The next day we left mag for chau doc as they were heading to hong kong, we might meet up in oz who knows.Chau doc is a fantastic little boarder town with little markets, friendly locals and the heaviest down pour of this trip. The hotel was wierd but it was only one night so it was cool (simillar to smellies in delhi). The next morning we boarded our boat for the cambodian border, and a month long adventure in country number three, but that will wait till next time, so, untill then be exellent to one another, and party on. WILD STALIONS !!