In order to enjoy the floating markets, our guide had declared we all needed to get up at 6:00 am, eat by 6:30 am, and be out of the door by 7:00 am. We managed to do just that, but truthfully, we'd been a little disappointed by our first day of the 2-day trip, so we weren't as enthusiastic as we could have been. However, we got on board and decided to start fresh.

It was lucky that we did. Our second day was much, much better. The floating markets were just opening as our boat pulled up. Produce of every kind was piled high and the product for sale was advertised by hanging it on a long pole suspended above the boat. Hanging watermelons, pineapples, bananas, papaya and more dotted the skyline. Smaller boats pulled up to the larger ones and began filling up with goods until it seemed they would surely tip.

As we were floating through the market, we had several small boats pull up to our boat to sell us drinks, but the vendors were friendly and not overly pushy. The boats we were in had padded seats and were smaller with no roof, so it was much more fun to look around. We were splashed a few times, but the hot sun (which gave several fellow travellers a wicked burn by the end of the day), warmed and dried us quickly.

Soon, the landscape on either side of the river grew more picturesque and developed. Bonsai trees and landscaped gardens increased in number and our tour of the river evolved into a warm, relaxing experience. We turned off the river into a side canal and soon found ourselves moored near a small rice paper factory. We learned how rice paper and Vietnamese vermicelli is made. We also learned that these people work from 7:00 am until 10:30 pm each day, breaking only for lunch! Our guide said they don't mind as it's a family run farm, but they work 365 days of the year. Doesn't sound like much of a life to us, but they are grateful to have steady money coming in.

Back on the boat, we took a lovely relaxed canal ride past the backyards of numerous Vietnamese river people's homes. The children ran out to wave to us, and many people looked up from their daily chores with shy smiles and waves. Eventually the canal made its way back to the Mekong and we met up with another floating market, which we also cruised slowly through. Eventually, it was time to return to our starting point. The trip back was very nice and relaxing and, as we are people who like to boat, it ended all too soon for us.

We had lunch, visiting with a couple from Spain and a Web Developer from London, and then got back onto the bus for our return to HCMC. We had to disembark at a ferry crossing, as we did the day before. After crossing, we had to wait for the bus to catch up, and Barry started playing with some kids who had been begging from us moments earlier. They forgot about begging for awhile (they didn't look like real beggars anyway!), and instead we had a lot of fun. However, once it was time for us to board the bus, they started "begging" again. It looked like it was just another game for them.

Two other incidents along the way:

(1) Four extra people got on the bus who hadn't been with us for the first part of the tour. They had been on a 3-day tour, but on their third day (a boat transfer to Cambodia), they were told that they weren't going any further. It seems that the travel agency had messed things up, but the people didn't have a receipt with them to prove they'd paid for another day. We thought that was crazy and were very weirded out, especially since we, too, had no receipt, as neither our hotel or guide had provided one for us.

(2) After getting off and then back onto the bus for the ferry crossing, two passengers appeared to be missing. No problem to us, as it meant another few minutes delay. However, the guide announced that he had made it very clear to keep close to him the whole time, so we were leaving without them. A number of us protested, but he didn't care. We were a little shocked (to say the least), and worried that the people left behind might be without passports and alone in the middle of nowhere. Not cool.

After arriving in HCMC (Saigon), we went out for dinner and then to bed; hopeful our trip into Cambodia the next day would go more smoothly than the plights of some of our fellow travellers to the Mekong Delta.