Day 11 – Can Tho to Ho Chi Minh City

January 4th 2009

Early start, for a holiday anyway, 7am for breakfast. Have to hang around for a bit as there's nowhere to sit, who'd have thought everyone wanted to eat at this time. Not quite the range we've been getting used to for breakfast but, relatively speaking, we are out in the backend of beyond so no complaints.

The reason for the early start is we have a boat trip to the floating markets, the biggest on the Mekong Delta, to make and the later in the day it gets the less people there are about, more people = better photo opportunities!

Nduc meets us in the lobby and we walk down to one of the small piers just a couple of minutes from the hotel. Not many other people about at this particular moment and true to form a boat pulls up, much bigger than yesterday's, and soon we're on our way. Just us, our guide, the driver and his assistant! Cruising in the larger boat is even better than yesterday which did get a bit choppy on the waves at times. Passing under a strangely “under construction” bridge – strange in the places it hasn't been completed yet, i.e. they've left what looks about 4 feet right in the middle – it takes us about 30 minutes to reach the floating markets.

Now we'd both pictured something off “Wish You Were Here” I think, floating up and down somewhere narrow haggling with the locals over souvenirs etc but unsurprisingly we are completely and utterly wrong. This is a full on commercial market, it just happens to take place on the river. Large boats are the wholesalers, smaller boats come and go as middlemen take the goods on to other smaller boats for shipping off who knows were. Then there are the smallest boats simply selling all manner of items to the larger boats which happen to be their homes too, we're talking anything from washing up liquid to pumpkins. Trading seems to be heavy in pineapples and rice and after a while we pull the boat up next to a pineapple wholesaler, climbing on to the top of our boat for a better look around while Nduc explains the intricacies of the exchanges. In between negotiating with an old woman who already has a boat load of pineapples but seems to be after more he carves us 2 pineapple “lollipops” - which is good for a 10,000 Dong (about 40p) tip of anyone's money. Back in the boat to head back with not a tacky souvenir in sight, I feel an avalanche of tourist mania is coming our way soon, surely? More tipping – and I'm consulting Sarah each time now, the maths and general value of money was beginning to do my head in – and we're back to the hotel for a quick shower before Mr Lap picks us up in the car (a Ford Escape, made sure I looked at the badge this time).

Only a few minutes outside Can Tho we stop at a building called Long Tuyen. It's some sort of communal hall/temple. Nduc tells us it's the best restored of its kind around and goes on to the detail of what it is, how it came about, and the rest. To be honest much goes above us in a combination of sheer volume of information and understanding the English but it pre-dates the French taking over, had some sort of permission from the King to be established there and many National heroes appear to be commemorated, cue large bust of Ho Chi Minh of course.

To the car then, which is where we'll basically spend the next 4 to 5 hours retracing our steps back to HCMC. Traffic isn't as bad it being a Sunday today, but unfortunately there's a couple of crashes on the way which in a universal rubber-necking style seems to hold us up more than it holds up the people coming from the direction of the crash itself. Spend most of the time just gazing out of the window at the passing scenery – most of which is urban and fascinating – or dozing. We stop at the same service area as on the way out. Now as if to re-iterate that it really is just about the nicest service area I've visited there's actually a wedding going on there! Lunchtime and they're onto the Karaoke already, it's truly awful and they all seem to be having a blast. We catch a glimpse of the bride, she's wearing a Western style dress which does make me wonder what they would've worn before and, while it's doing nothing to stop them having the day of their lives of course, that makes me a little sad.

After I lose, badly, the estimated time of arrival competition we're at the now familiar Saigon Oscar Hotel and say farewell to Nduc and Mr Lap. Time to stretch out for a bit, finish the Dean Koontz – which is a strange one – get the Cambodia leg of the photos onto Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/scfc9697/tags/holiday/ ), and prepare for a night on the town.

About 8pm we head for Underground, a bar just round the corner from the hotel which is in all the guidebooks. It's in a basement (obviously?) and is the sort of place you can imagine 35 years or so ago was frequented by the US army. Not that it's old fashioned or anything, there's US College football beamed live into here and, oh, Gillingham v Aston Villa in the FA Cup, not County v Aston Villa in the FA Cup, damn! A few drinks later and it's time for some dinner. Plenty of restaurants in our vicinity but of course the one we choose – is highly recommended in the guidebook – is open, has a table, but not enough food in the kitchen, they've been busy tonight! Well at least that's honest... As we stroll away and ponder where next to try the gentleman on the door beckons us to follow him. We do, well we try anyway, he's no more than 5' 2” but it's a struggle to keep up. He takes us to a different restaurant which we'll eat at tonight, decent recommendation, will shop around a bit more tomorrow night I think. Complete the night with a couple of drinks at Ice Blue and we're back at the hotel well before midnight – ah how time's change...