We woke up early and had a quick breakfast before being picked for our day trip to the Mekong Delta at 7.15am.

The first part of the day was a two hour drive from Ho Chi Minh City to Vinh Long passing through endless rice paddies and small villages along the way. When we arrived in Vinh Long we boarded a small boat and cruised up the river to the Cai Be floating market.

The market was very quiet but there were still a number of boats selling various fruits and vegetables with the itme they were selling hanging off a bamboo pole at the front of the boat. We continued up river passing an old French church and on to a family business that made rice paper, rice wine, coconut toffee and "poprice" which was like popcorn but made from rice instead. We got to see how the various products were made and sample some of them including the rice wine. We weren't offered any snake or scorpion wine!

Next we travelled along a narrow arm of the river to a house specialising in bonsai trees where we had tea and some local fruit inside a traditional house. There was also a python in a cage here which our guide took out and anyone who wanted to hold it could.

The last stop was our lunch at a house beside the river. The main course of the lunch was elephant-ear fish wrapped in rice paper with cucumber and mint leaves. Other courses were spring rolls, pork, beef, shrimp and fried noodles.

After lunch we took the boat back to Vinh Long and then on to the bus for the trip back to Ho Chi Minh City which included a trip over the new suspension bridge spanning the Mekong River.