Mekong Delta

As much as we really like Ho Chi Minh city, we were very excited to be getting out for a one night homestay in the Mekong Delta on Sunday night. And we were right to be excited, it is safe to say that these two days have been the best of the trip so far (if not two of my favourite days ever!)

We left HCMC early on Sunday and arrived at Vinh Long around midday. We were met by a boat which was to be our water vehicle around the Delta since the island we were to be staying on was only accessible by boat.

We had lunch at the house of a local family. They were so accommodating and put on a huge meal consisting of beautifully presented sea food, noodle soup and rice dishes. We all ate until we almost exploded and luckily had a choice of hammocks to laze in after lunch!

After sailing some more in the boat, we arrived at Mr Ba Hung's, which would be our home for the night. I think we were all expecting a small hut consisting of bunk beds with no running water or toilets. But what we were greeted with was quite different. Our beds were on high stilts over water in an open-air room. So simple but so beautiful.

There were bikes there so as soon as we dropped our bags we headed off on a bike ride around the island before sunset. The sky and the water were stunning and as we rode around all of the locals came out to say hello. This felt slightly ridiculous since we're nobody special but it was still a very nice welcoming to their village.

Dinner was once again amazing (I think we both feel as though all we are doing is eating at the moment), we watched and music show and then headed off to bed in the darkness. Must also mention that before dinner we found a humongous tarantula right by our beds (which had then disappeared before we settled down to sleep)....Surprisingly though we both slept very soundly on our stretcher-like beds, thankfully covered by mosquito nets!!

Also on the weekend, Dunkley held a huge python around her neck, we tried some unusual fruit (milk apple, which makes your lips stick together, and dragons eye) and enjoyed a peaceful boat ride along the beautiful river adorned in traditional Vietnamese hats whilst drinking fresh coconut milk (what tourists?!)

We're back in Ho Chi Minh now which is a really fantastic place. So much to do and see, we have been to the war museum which completely opened our eyes to Vietnam's history and tomorrow we are going to the Cu Chi tunnels just outside of the city. We are living on noodles (pretty much breakfast, lunch and dinner) but no complaints about that, they're delicious! And tomorrow evening we board our first overnight sleeper train which will take us further north, to Nha Trang. Dunkley is already planning the games we can play all night long!!