They say bad luck happens in threes, and along with the laundry incident in Ho Chi Minh City, the start of our trip to the Mekong Delta proved 'them' right. First, my bank card got cancelled for no good reason (rage!), then Selina and I were ripped off on the bus to My Tho, which ended up with us overpaying for our ticket. Needless to say, we were both fuming when we realised what had happened, but as the guy who scammed us had scarpered within seconds, we had to console ourselves with the fact that it wasn't that much money, and that the locals on the bus were almost as outraged as we were.

Luckily things picked up once we arrived in My Tho. Our hotel was a bit smelly, and there was a loud karaoke convention downstairs that started at 7.30am every morning (it was bizarre), but other than that it was fine. We went out that evening with a guy Czech guy Selina had met while smoking (smoking is a very socialble activity while travelling) and ended up in a crazy club, where we were pretty much the only Westerners. I'm still not sure if it was a gay club or not, but the Vietnamese certainly know how to throw down the moves! And the bouncers there were the nicest bouncers in the world - they were on hand to light cigarettes and to clear a pathway in the dance floor when we needed to get through - so different to bouncers at home!

The next day I got up at stupid'o'clock to go to the floating market. It wasn't quite as busy and bustling as I'd expected, but it was pretty cool to see all the buying and selling going on between the boats. The definite highlight was taking a boat through the islands of the Mekong Delta. We started with a trip to Unicorn Island, which is unfortunately not home to unicorns, but is home to a honey bee farm and a fruit farm. Naturally there was new and exciting fruit to try here, and this week's fruits are moose apple, which looked like a granny smith but had a soft texture and a milky taste, and logan fruit, which has a hard brown shell and tastes like lychee. I'm starting to think lychee is the chicken of the fruit world - it's what most unusual things taste like! After that we took a smaller boat, paddled by two ladies, through the small canals around the islands. This is exactly what I thought the Mekong Delta would be like - hot, steamy, with a dark brown river lined by a wall of tall palm leaves on either side. It was really beautiful. The next stops were a coconut candy factory (we got to taste the candy, and also spied bottles of 'cobra wine' - yep, that's wine with a cobra actually in the bottle!) and a fish farm, where I got to stroke some of the fish. I don't think they liked it much though. The sunset over the river was stunning, and once the sun had gone down we went to Phoenix island, home of the coconut monk, who once ate nothing but coconuts for two whole years! He'd also built a mini Apollo rocket replica, so he could "go to the moon when he wanted". OK... The best part of the trip was on the way back - our guide took the boat over to a hedgerow, where we could see fireflies in the bushes. We could only see one or two flickering to start with, but as we got nearer we saw hundreds of them, twinkling away like fairy lights! It was amazing - at the rick of sounds like a loser, I think it's one of those moments that I'll always remember. Our guide also caught a couple of fireflys a put them in a bottle for us to have a closer look at - they were so cool, all green and glowy on their bums. He suggested we let them out in our hotel room, but as we'd sprayed loads of DEET in there earlier, we didn't think that was such a good idea, so we let them out by the river instead,

I have noticed that lots of things here are called Kim - cafes, clothes shops, hotels - it's weird seeing my name everywhere! Apparently it means 'strong one' in Vietnamese, and also 'sew' and 'metal'. Kids here find me hilarious too. I think it's the white skin, but they keep pointing and laughing at me, and giggling when I try to speak to them. When we were waiting at the bus station for our bus to Dalat, these two little girls sat and watched me, laughing and pointing for ages. Then the got a bit brave and kept running up to touch my backpack, and ran off giggling if I turned round and saw them before they reached me! It reminded me of the part in Finding Nemo when Nemo's friends dare him to "touch the butt". They followed me right up until I got on the bus, I think just to see whether I would do anything funny... weirdos!

We are now in Dalat, and as it's shrove Tuesday we're going to find somewhere to eat pancakes tonight. Will write more about Dalat soon, expect tales of motorbike adventures in the mountains!

Byeee!
Kimbob xx