Phu Quoc Island where Happy Hour lasts all day and the Mekong Delta - the land of the boat trip!

---

The border journey was interesting as we left around 8am and the bus didn't come until around 9.30. The bus then went off road down a tiny dirt track that led to the Official Cambodia-Vietnam border. We crossed easily with our pre-bought Vietnamese Visa and were soon travelling to the port town ready for our ferry to the next stop on our trip, our island retreat. Oh the way our driver told us that there had been an armed police raid of the ferries...this was a complete lie and it turned out he had just failed to call the ferry and tell them to reserve our seats. After some pretty serious fist-banging at the hands of a French couple we decided there was nothing we could do except book into a hotel and the wait the night out there. Anna, Ed and an Australian girl called Gemma joined us in a pretty fancy hotel which was bargained down to about $5 a night per room. We spent the day wasting time really going around the town and watching whatever movies came on the star movie channel! We had a nice meal all together with some weird food concoctions coming out of the kitchen such as beef dishes with no beef and chips served with a side dish of butter and sugar. The next morning we left for the island and found a lovely bungalow there just off the seafront complete with hammocks to lie in! The island was beautiful but the weather was mixed so on the sunny days we went onto the beach and when it rained we lay in our hammocks reading trashy novels. The only thing that we had planned everyday was to go with the others to the bar that served Lemon Rum cocktails at half price from 5-7pm!! We really enjoyed our time here and had a much needed relax from the tiring and oh so stressful sight seeing as previous beaches!!

From Phu Quoc we went via ferry to Can Tho - the main town of the Mekong Delta (an area of rivers and islands). The ferry was interesting as they showed a documentary on the Vietnam War, this caused some issues as some passengers got annoyed that we weren't watching it and we should have been. In our defense it was in Vietnamese! Can Tho turned out to be huge. It was a really busy town set on a river with a nice collection of restaurants and cafes. We went from here on an early morning boat ride to the nearby floating markets. This was amazing as the river was full of boats all selling different produce. They all had large sticks on top of their boats with the different fruits and vegetables that they sold tied on to show you where you could buy things. It was really fascinating to see people hopping from boat to boat. We then went around some of the canals around the area which were so pretty lined with old houses, people doing their washing and palm trees. Our boat driver told us to get out at one point and we walked through the riverside villages and allotments where he showed us plants that grew everything from beans to pineapples to sugarcane to lemongrass. It was really fun! We then stopped at a small cafe where we had a drink and some bananas (complete with maggots that we found out after we'd already eaten 4 each-they're only mini!) and then our driver bought out some special local whiskey that he made us try! It was still only about 8am! Too early for whiskey!

We left Can Tho later that day to go to Vinh Long a small town from where a company helps you to organize home stays with local families. We got a boat with a very smiley boatman to the tiny island where the family lived. We arrived and found that the house was home to a family with three generations living under one roof. The home stay was different than we had imagined it would be as it was more of a B & B than than living in someones home. Our room was separate from the house with 4 beds, mosquito nets and a lock on the door. The rest of the house was a small living space with an upstairs where they slept and a kitchen with a wooden stove. The floor throughout was earth and then out the back was where they did all the washing up. We helped cook dinner which turned out to be a feast of steamed fish wrapped in rice paper, pork in a claypot, fried vegetables, spring rolls and pumpkin soup. We the helped to wash the pots on the floor outside in big steel bowls before going to bed.

Next stop from here was Ho Chi Minh City where we were extremely excited about going to the cinema for the first time since we've been away...oh and seeing the city and history and all that too!

---