DAY FIVE

Awakening to brilliant sunshine, Jasmin bounded about the Deluxe Double Room, while i groaned having had only minimal sleep yet again. Must drink more water, and not get so dehydrated!

The mornings activities consisted of visiting the fishing villages that are sponsored by the tour company, as we were duly and constantly informed of how good

Indochina Junk are to the local fishermen and their families. I think they actually might have come from heaven, as what they do for the Vietnam is wonderful......

First up, was a tour of the floating fishing villages by row boat, stopping to look at the local school ( which they wanted donations for...standard), the fish breeding pits with loads of different varieties and then onto an oyster farm, where they farm the oysters and also cultivate the mother of pearl.

Funnily enough, we were ushered into a showroom full of jewellary produced from their pearls, at what we were told ' small money' rates. 150 dollars U.S for a mother of pearl bracelet isn't small monies if you ask me!

Back to the boat for some rest and relaxation- blog writing time for me! This was followed by yet another 587 courses from the brunch menu- some very tasty tidbits indeed!

The sail back to the harbour typified why everyone forks out plaenty of wonga to see this wonderful area- it truly is remarkable and unforgetable( well, thats we think anyway!)

Just when we thought the tour was over, the driver of our 'luxury' minivan, took a detour via a narrow road which had paddy fields as far as the eye could see.

Through the summer haze i could see a ornate vietnamese homestead appearing- and the immediate thought was ' whats for sale this time?

Suprisingly, nothing for sale, apparently it was part of the tour price, but i must admit- it was very very different. If you have ever seen oriental water puppet shows you will understand. For those who haven't, it is kind of like a lewd, oriental and bizarre punch and judy show, in water. Ceramic puppets flying about the water with a strange soundtrack that just sounds like putting Kylie Minogue on vinyl and turning the play speed up to double.There was a scene where two puppets- a mummy puppet, and a daddy puppet writhed in the water, which produced a baby puppet, then they send it to work on the paddy fields. Very, very different.

Arrival back in Hanoi, it was decided that we would find the famous street food street, which indeed we did, eating a 'beef' and 'pork' soup. I have my doubts to the validity of the pork, as there is pork and then there is dog- i'm not sure we were given pork. Oh dear!!

Beer was served in ridicuously chilled glasses, at a handsome price of roughly 60 p a large bottle. In terms of other countries- £ 1.20 aussie, $1.10 U.s and probably $2,000,330,00 in dubai.