so we hired a boat for the morning, and reluctantly booked another minibus to Ho Chi Minh City that afternoon, hoping that this driver would be a little more sane! We then went to the only restaurant in town for something to eat, but the food was bland and tasteless! Vinh Long was not our favourite place so far!!

We spent the rest of the day just chilling and catching up on diaries and photographs, and woke up nice and early ready for our boat trip. It has to be said that the trip was lovely, we spend ages pottering along little backwater canals and rivers, and were treated to visits to a bonsai garden and a rice paper making place. It was quite fascinating to see how the spring rolls we would later enjoy started out!! We also visited the nearby floating markets, but we were a little late, as most of them had packed up already. Although it was great just watching how the local people live on

the river, there were boats everywhere with people doing all the things you would see people doing in houses in a village. It was like a different world living a completely different way of life!! Fascinating to see! On the way back through the island we went down some canals which had just about enough water in for us to navigate, and the boats engine packed in at one point, although our driver got it going again, much to our relief!!

After the not so great lunch the day before we decided to try a local restaurant which was in the rough guide. It was a bit of a walk through the town to get there, and on the way we saw the most horrific example of animal cruelty either of us have seen.. As we were walking along we heard this weird high pitched noise, and looked around to see what it was. Going past us was a motorbike, and on the front was a small pig, it’s legs tied together, and rolled up