Away early for 2 hour bus trip to the Mekong River Delta. As it crosses Vietnam the Mekong divided into 9 branches, each one enormous. The first part of the tour was on a river boat, transporting us to farms and jungles where we would spend the next few hours on various forms of transport. First stop was a coconut farm and coconut lolly production shed. The coconut lolly was like a cross between fudge and a mintie (not the taste, just the texture).

We then jumped into tuk tuk style motor bike contraptions for a spin through the jungle, with narrow paths, farms and canals twisting this way and that. We stopped at a broom ‘factory’, but no production today and then into a small village where a wedding was being held. (The wedding might explain no workers at the broom place). The wedding guests were as interested in us as we were in them, coming out the front to take our photo and inviting us to taste their rice wine. Very strong – quite like Saki.

We were then ushered into canoe style boats and paddled through a narrow canal, which became narrower and choked with water hyacinth to the point where we needed to get involved in propelling the canoe through the blockages.

It was then a short walk to lunch – whole fish made into rice paper rolls, and back on the river boat to return to our starting point, then back to Saigon by bus.

After a short rest we headed to Koto restaurant for our final Vietnam group dinner (tomorrow the Vietnam trip officially ends and the Cambodia trip officially begins, with a change of group leader and a change of group) and a Secret Santa.