Tuesday 7th January

Let’s just start by saying that I loved HCMC, for all the reasons previously mentioned BUT the thing I forgot to mention is there weren’t any mosquitoes! Rather nice not to have been eaten alive for a few days. We catch a Grab from our hotel to a bus station (although you’d never have guessed it was a bus station, it just looked like a regular old, dusty shop). We had twenty minutes to wait so we go a few doors down to find a cafe and loo so that J can get his proper Vietnamese coffee fix and I can use the loo. It was full of sex workers all getting ready for the day ahead, they all looked amazing (in a slightly tarty way as you’d expect) but it was the most crummy cafe and the loo was fairly disgusting too. I shuffled out looking decidedly scruffy by comparison to the other ladies present and after the toilet experience felt like I needed a complete hose down not a 2 hour bus ride! Back to the bus and only one other couple of tourists, a Dutch couple travelling with us plus countless other locals and cargo. We get to Ben Tru after a few hours following a number of drop offs along the way. We then hop in another mini bus, he drives like a manic around Ben Tru dropping off a few others before depositing us at our home stay (Nha Mo / New House homestay), it’s £15 per night so I’m not expecting much. We meet Tuk the owner, about half an hour after arriving she calls by as she doesn’t live here. It’s quirky but nice and in a quiet area. There are a total of six rooms en-suite with a shared living area, kitchen, lounge. We dump bags and grab the bikes out front and cycle into Ben Tru (about 7km away) so we can get the feel of the place. The cycle back is fairly horrific as it’s rush hour by then with scooters, cars, lorries everywhere… I loose my sh@t a few times on the roundabouts and decide to get off and cross when I can… my only advice is look at the traffic oncoming, wave at it and by some miracle hope that they slow down and avoid you but you really are playing chicken with your life! A little later we head back into Ben Tru, we catch a grab to a highly recommended seafood restaurant but soon discover that no one speaks English and the menus aren’t translated either, we have a go at using Google translate but it’s really not helping (actually it’s making me queasy) we get up and head off to another restaurant (CocoMint) that was on our recommended list. It’s ok and we manage to get a salad and pizza just for a change, another Grab back to the homestay. We have booked a private guide for a trip on the Mekong tomorrow…

Wednesday 8th January

Breakfast delivered by Tuk, we tuck into our breakfast rolls (Ban Mi) which are filled with herbs, pickles, shrimp, egg, chilli sauce and anything else that they feel like popping in. Our driver picks us up at 9 and takes us to meet our guide, Tran Le, at the Pier. She’s lovely and full of life. She takes us to our boat and it’s just us on a private tour. We head off down one of the rivers that forms the Mekong Delta and she’s spread out lots of different fruits for us to try plus a coconut juice. We soon stop in the middle of the river to buy shrimp which she says she’ll have cooked for us for lunch! Some of the shrimp are the size of lobsters. We continue on and our first stop is to a honey farm, there are lots of inlets in between the 9 tributaries that make up the MK so there’s life even in the most unexpected places. We walk into a honey and coconut processing farm. We’re treated to lime, honey, pollen and jasmine tea and you can literally walk up to the bee hives and take the lid off without provoking the bees (mind you they are half the size of our bees). We’re back on the boat and up river once more, briefly dropping the shrimp off at a local restaurant who is cooking lunch for us. We’re visit a cacao producer, and they produce all kinds of chocolate related goodies which we sample. I’m busy talking to another German tourist who seems to have latched on to us, J hands me a glass of what he tells me is jasmine tea, only I drink it to find out it’s the local snake head hooch which I drink down and Tran Le and J are rolling about laughing whilst I get over the shock. Needless to say I didn’t buy any but we did buy the cacao rum that J liked. We leave here on foot and walk to a village where they live partially on land and partially in the mangroves. Tran Le gives us numerous herbs and fruits to try, she’s arranged a little kayak trip in a traditional wooden kayak so we can get into smaller channels of the MK. We’re lucky enough to spot a kingfisher and we also sample the water coconut, which looks nothing like a traditional coconut, it looks like a giant brain made of wood, the pods which are avocado shaped / sized provide just a tiny mouthful of coconut which has the taste and texture of lychees. We paddle back to the main boat and then we’re off back down the MK, stopping off at the restaurant that is cooking the shrimp. They bring that plus other dishes of morning glory, grilled cat-fish, rice and spring rolls. The best bit is that Tran Le sits and peels all the shrimps for us, giving us the best bits whilst she devours the heads and meat that she’s extracted from the claws. It’s an absolutely fabulous lunch and I insist on taking the leftovers away as I hate wasting food. Once back on dry land we wander around the downtown market stalls as J is looking for a coffee filter. I’m sorry to say that the mosquitos are alive and well in the Mekong Delta and enjoying tucking into me again… Once back at our digs we both get cleaned up and packed up and spend the rest of the afternoon reading, relaxing and planning the next bit of our trip. Heading to Can Tho tomorrow…