The morning after the night before...And New Years Day!

I woke up with a hangover!

We had decided the previous evening that we would not be going on the expedition in the morning; it was to a bird sanctuary and if you know me, I am terrified of  birds! We slept in until 8am, before going to breakfast then up to the sundeck to sunbathe all morning. It was a very overcast and I was covered in sunscreen but I still seem to have a red forehead and redness right down the side of my neck, on my legs, you name it!

We had a reasonably quick lunch, the highlight being the Vietnamese beef with crispy noodles, before boarding the sampan to go on the afternoon excursion. It was a 10 minute journey to our first stop; we walked through a local village but as it was new year, no-one was working (apart from the guy delivering ice..as you do in 90 degrees!), people were drunk, singing karaoke and all the kids were out and about waving at us! Unfortunately, as we got off the boat, I was bitten by fire ants; there’s a first for everything! It was incredibly sore and burned at the time, but I’m hoping they don’t turn into anything more!

We got back on the sampan and headed down river a bit further. This time we went to a local families house to see how they weave bamboo baskets. It was amazing to see a woman in her eighties, sitting cross legged on the ground, using one foot to hold the basket while using her hands to weave the bamboo! Basically, the whole family are part of the business, even the one year old will be brought up to weave when she is older! We also got to see around the house but we felt a bit like we were intruding so we sat outside watching the other weavers.

After that, we got in a local limousine to go to our next mode of transport. The limousine is a motocycle with a cart on the back which was a nice piece of engineering. It took us around the village where we literally waved at every second house, now I know how the queen feels! Our first stop was a hundred year old Catholic Church, or so we were told... Like a lot of things in Vietnam, the original church was 100 years old but then it was demolished and rebuilt in 2010! This seems to be a “thing” in Vietnam, I think someone needs to tell them about false advertising!

After the church, we got back in the limousine for a few minutes before getting off the cart again and boarding the local ferry to take us across the river. Our next stop was a mango farm where mangoes were a kilo in weight, not like at home. We met the local farmer, the owner of the business and he showed us green, white and red mangoes; basically the colour can be determined by wrapping the mango in a different coloured bag! If you want a green mango, wrap in a brown bag with a black inside to stop the sun getting through! Its quite ingenious, but a hell of a manual-labour job! By Vietnamese standards, he was pretty wealthy, earning around 10,000 dollars a year. We then got to try some mango, jasmine tea and play on a bamboo playground which i think they built for the tourists! Iain was thrilled!

By this point, we were melting as the humidity was incredible. Thankfully, it was time to go back to the boat and shower before cocktail hour at six and dinner at seven!

We had a gin, Cointreau and sambuca cocktail tonight; wow, it was strong but also quite nice! We headed for dinner, I went for a Khmer vegetable curry which was delicious and clearly full of cocunut milk! Dinner was great and was followed by our usual post-dinner appearance at the sun deck........the excursion in the morning is scheduled to leave at 8.30am so we decided for the first time in a long while to have an early night! Plus the number of bugs on the sundeck seems to have quadrupled so I think I’m safer in our air-conditioned cabin.