The third day of our stacked out month is a two day/one night trip to the Mekong Delta. A 2hr drive to the upper Mekong let us; visit a bee farm to try the medicinal honey tea that cures anything; listen to traditional live music (horrible sounds); eat fresh fruit from the fertile land; take a rowing boat journey through the mangroves with the pointy hats on, peacefully flowing down the river; visit a coconut candy factory and try some and Matt tried rice wine with a cobra inside. Also some homemade peanut brittle - sorry Shez it didn't last long enough to bring home.

In the afternoon we boarded a bigger boat to cruise through the islands arrangement of the Mekong and to Turtle Island for lunch. This meal brought back much emotion as it reminded us of the Samrong special, rice, soy and fake chili sauce. The meal that we ate for our first two weeks in Cambodia at the orphanage. The boat journey back to the mainland was interesting to say the least. A example of our conversation is probably the best way to illustrate the event.

Matt - "Char have you noticed that the boat is really lop-sided? It looks worse than just being unbalanced."

Char - "It's probably fine remember we are in Asia and we have being on a boats in a much worse state."

A few moments pass and water starts spraying up from the floor of the boat. The fellow passengers just put their feet over the spray and ignore it.

Matt - "Char that isn't normal for a boat to suddenly start spraying water upwards."

We point to the water and notify the tour guide, who then tells the driver. The engine is instantly cut off and the floor of the boat taken up to reveal the engine submerged in water. If the look on the drivers face didn't confirm that we were now sinking, the shouts for help to passing boats did. Luckily by this point we were near an island not in the middle of the 1km stretch of river. After a few tries no one was coming but no life jackets were distributed. After a few more SOS cries a boat in the distance made an about turn and was heading for us. It is not often you can say we were the last people to get off of a sinking boat on the Mekong river. Once everyone had being rescued by a better boat the driver jumped back into the sinking ship and we left him. We think he managed to tie the boat to a tree on the nearby island.

The last stop was to visit three humongous Bhuddas. We then ate pomegranate on the 2.5 hour journey just to add to the madness of the afternoon, before arriving in Can Tho city for the night.

M & C xxxx