It seemed like we'd only just arrived in Saigon, and we were moving on again. This time we were joining a tour to travel up the Mekong Delta to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Happily, some of the people who'd been on the Cu Chi tunnels trip turned up on this one, too. Dutch guys Nicko and Wendy, and Scottish couple Jim and Diane, who were all really funny, also a weird German and a couple of Austrian lads who weren't funny at all!
I didn't endear myself to them when I inferred they were German, 'do people from different parts of Germany have different accents?', I asked. 'Ja. But vee arr frrom Austria', hmm, same difference!
The tour-guide from the tunnels trip was from Saigon, and had made no secret of the fact that, in her opinion, the wrong side had won the war. The chap who led us up the Mekong, however, was from the Delta originally, and his family were Viet Cong, I wouldn't like to be on a tour with the both of them, it could end in tears!
The tour-guides are very proud of Vietnamese culture, there's nothing wrong with this, of course, apart from their unfortunate habit of breaking into song whilst leading a tour. So, you're a captive audience, sat on a coach, the guides have microphones, and they're not afraid to use them, 'I would like to sing you a song from Vietnamese amateur (folk) music, if you would like to listen'. Oh god, it was terrible, think Hilda Ogden choking on a gob-stopper! Just when you thought he'd finished, he'd start another verse! I was starting to weigh up just how rude it would be to put my iPod on, when he finally stopped. The next day, another guide, another karaoke session, 'have you heard Vietnamese Amateur Music?', she asked, 'Yes', we all sighed. 'Did you like it?' she enquired; no response. 'DID YOU LIKE IT?'. I answered, 'we've HEARD it, yesterday', but she couldn't take a hint, and there was no escape. I must remember to keep a pair of ear-plugs handy at all times!
The boat-trip up the river was great, there was always something to look at; kids splashing around and waving, a farmer taking his huge pig for a boat-ride, and a floating petrol-station (with a little sales kiosk, I wonder if they sold crap CDs, A-Z's, torches, chamois leathers, and condoms?).
We stopped for lunch by the riverside, and, as a little diversion, the restaurant-owner got his huge python out! A couple of brave souls posed with the monster around their neck, but we'd managed to get all the way 'round 'straya without any snake-related incidents, so why tempt fate?
Thao, the guide, kept buying different fruits for us from boats along the river; coconuts, pineapples, lady-finger bananas, custard apples, things that looked like bush-tucker from 'I'm a Celeb..', Sal loved this, 'cos you know she'll eat an-y-thing!
We arrived late-on, sun-scorched, but happy, at the cute little port of Can Tho, had a nice tea in a cafe on the 10th floor of our hotel and went straight to bed. Next morning, another early start, for a visit to the floating market, which was great, then a long, boring drive to Chau Doc, for our final night in Vietnam.
We had tea in a locals restaurant, where frog, snake, and eel were all on the menu, we played safe, and had chicken and squid ( I think! ), then went for coffee in a snazzy little place where we sat on deck-chairs on the pavement, and listened to Vietnamese pop!