Yaawwnnnnn!! Surprise, surprise and it's an early start to our last full day in Vietnam, we had to be ready to rock and roll by 7.30am, otherwise we would miss the floating fruit and vegetable market.

And it's still raining!! Come to Vietnam, they said, Lovely warm weather in the dry season, they said. Oh yeah, so why am I in the grips of the tail end of a typhoon???


The restaurant is on the top floor and I could see that the rain was still doing its stair-rod impression. 

Oh Joy.

The restaurant was jam packed with Oriental tourists with just one table left with no cutlery or crockery.

I have officially given up with the Toaster from Hell and decided on a few slices of baguette. 
 
I staked my claim with my baguette and went for some coffee. Thinking about it, I should have chosen the tea as I don't enjoy the mocha coffee, but maybe it was too early in the morning for rational thought.

As I buttered my first slice I felt a drop of water on my head. Looking up I could see the threat of further indoor rainfall, so I swapped sides only to be attacked by a dangling ficus plant on the wall, trying to get its tentacles around my neck, and, more water drops.

The windows were all steamed up and it was only then that I could tell that the ceiling was made of glass, a bit like a greenhouse and they'd not heard of mastic, which accounted for the leaky ceiling.

 Back to brekkie and Celia came to join me and was dripped on, then Paula and then Mirella. In between some cheeky little Japanese tourist put his head around the corner and pinched our condiments set without asking. We just looked at each other thinking "bloody cheek" and he popped back and swiped the toothpicks too.

We were all pretty damp by the end of the meal but I had managed to perform a sort of macrame with the ficus as revenge.

Once downstarirs, waiting for Nam, five of us decided that we needed to buy a plastic poncho to wear for the floating market visit. They cost a meagre 5000 Dong which worked out at about 4p, which was overpriced as mine ripped when I put it over my head. Never mind it will do..

Celia thought we all looked like giant,  multi-coloured condoms!!

We all boarded the bus and two minutes later, we all disembarked and boarded our boat, which had a waterproof roof and side blinds, thank goodness It was driven by a very cheerful little man who had installed a small garden of bonsai trees and flowers just in front of his steering wheel.

It was quite a long trip, about 45 minutes and I don't really know what I was expecting, but I was a little disappointed. I think the photos I've seen before have been of a flower market which may even have been in Thailand. It was lacking in colour, I think.

There were loads of boats, most of them filled with just one kind of fruit or vegetable and all the pineapple boats stuck together, as did the water melon boats and the sweet potato boats etc. They tie a sample of what they are selling on to a tall pole, so buyers know where to zone in. There are also boats selling hot coffee , the dreaded pho (dishwater noodle stew) and also baguettes. They just row over and hook up to your boat and dish out the food.

We were invited onto one of the big barges selling pineapples and given some free samples, which were just perfectly ripe, none of this Ripen At Home business that we get in Tesco.

When we got off the boat, we passed through a small town market. I don't think I have ever been so upset. There doesn't seem to be any laws that look after the welfare of the fresh fish and meat markets. Lots of the fish were.still alive, wriggling around, desperately trying to get into what litle water there was. But it was the frogs. They had been skinned alive and half their heads chopped off. They were jumping about and all that was left of their heads was the mouth and obviously enough of their brain to enable them to move. I felt I wanted to scream and had to go outside.

Why are humans so evil?

On the way back to the hotel, we bought ourselves a different kind of lunch. We stopped at a very special little bakery, called Tous Les Jours, which is a fusion of Vietnamese and French patisserie. You just grab a tray and a pair of tongs and put whatever you want on it. They heat up the savouries for you and then you can go upstairs and scoff the lot.

So we are now back at The Millennium hotel for the night. I refused a twin room because I prefer a double bed and am sat here now in my suite on the 5th floor! Nam said, they can't downgrade you, so they have to upgrade instead. We left our washing with a local laundry when we left the other day and he met us in the lobby. They did a whole week's worth for me at the cost of £4 and it was all neatly folded. So I won't be doing much laundry when I get back, thank goodness.

There was an option this afternoon to go and look at the cathedral, and the post office, for some reason. If you've read my previous diatribes, you will know by now that I am hugely bored by churches, and we have a post office in Broadstone. As a result I stayed at the hotel, in my suite Dahling, and had a shower and repacked my case for Cambodia.

We have to leave at 6am tomorrow and tonight we have our farewell dinner with Nam. He is taking us somewhere that serves amazing duck with ginger and other specials which he says is very affordable. A few of us are running a little short of Dong but I have over 400, 000 left which is about £20 and you can dine like a king on that and still have change for the airport in the morning.