Moved from Saigon to our river cruise boat today (RV Tonle). Boat was built in 2002. Mainly tropical wood. Very comfortable with reasonably large cabins. We then were taken on to smaller boats (sampans) for a tour of a local village. Plenty of floating markets (boats selling all manner of vegetables and fruit). We visited a local family operated business where they made popped rice, coconut toffee and rice paper. The popped rice is made by heating sand, tossing in the rice (which pops like rice crispies), screening the rice from the sand, mixing it with various sweet flavours (coconut, caramel, cocoa, etc.) and then making little popped rice cakes (like rice crispie cakes). The toffee is made from coconut. The rice paper is made from grinding rice into rice flour, creating a liquid and then cooking it like a crepe on a thin filament over steam. The result is a very thin rice paper used to make a type of egg roll, although with a variety of fillings. It also makes a great rice chip. The weather is hot. One of our guides described the climate in the southern part of Vietnam as being comprised of two seasons -- hot and bloody hot. Not sure which season we are in now but for us it is bloody hot -- and humid.