To Mekong delta, the rice, fruit and veg basket of the South. A tropical climate, the temperature was in the 30s with high humidity. We took a small boat to get to the village of Cai Thia where we cycled around, visiting a family to see how rice paper is made. The people are very hospitable and we tasted rice paper with soy sauce, crispy rice paper with sesame seeds and their home grown fruit. I now have the recipe for Miss Thuy's jam, which I shall try making.

Mango and bananas grow wild, and each garden has Vietnamese pears, guava, jackfruit and a veg plot. We passed a school, the younger children go in the morning and the older ones in afternoon. Each child has 4 hours tuition a day and they all called out 'hello' as we passed. Andy often replied 'Hi' which means 'two' so he had to do the 'hello' again.

Many of the villagers make and grow goods to sell in the local markets. We visited Mr Ching and his wife. She makes cakes to sell to children outside the school, and he is a carpenter, making boats, furniture etc from the local fruit wood. He can make 2 chairs in 3 days, all by hand, he has no power tools and was proud to show Andy his handiwork. We sampled cake, guava with chilli salt and potent banana wine from their kitchen, washed down with Vietnamese tea.

Back on the boat, we cruised across to Binh Hoa Phuc island where we tried more local fruit, this time with peach wine, in a nursery garden. The wine is 40% alcohol, very strong!

We passed kilns making bricks and tiles from clay dredged from the river, boat builders and homes on stilts on the river banks. The water level was low, and some of the larger ships were aground, waiting for the tide to float them again. We landed at Vinh Long where our driver collected us to drive to Cantho for the night. The rainy season started with a violent thunderstorm. We ran into a Buddhist temple where Chau showed us the robes used in processions and explained the customs then we waded out through the water and were driven to Can Tho for the night. Our car was surrounded by scooters and bikes in the torrential rain. At some points the water was halfway up their wheels, but they gamely plodded on.

The evening was dry and we had a fabulous view of the city lights from the hotel's rooftop coffee bar after dinner at a quayside table reserved by Chau.