I headed for the countryside, desperate to escape the madness of Saigon. A three hour bus ride South brought me to the little town of Ben Tre, one of the riverside towns on the Mekong Delta. The coffee coloured waters winded their way along channels lined with water palms and bamboo huts nestled in the lush greenery. I stayed at Ben Tre Farm Stay, a little farm just a couple of kilometers outside the town. My hut was completely hand made, thatched with straw and bamboo sticks lined the walls. I explored the town by bike that afternoon, skirting around the riverside to see the market where oodles of fresh produce, shoes, clothes and knick knacks lined the streets. I picked up some funky looking fruit and some of their typical cane sugar juice.

The next morning was spent on a river tour with a Vietnamese family also on holidays. We snaked our way through the Delta by a little motor boat. First stop was a family brick making business, where we saw them cooking up some clay bricks under the baking sun. Secondly we stopped at a Coconut candy 'factory' where only a handful of women worked and did everything by hand; from the deshelling, to the cooking and the packaging. Last stop was a Floor Mat workshop with women handweaving huge mats. The family I was with got great amusement out of giving me new foods to eat and watching my reaction so I ended up trying countless new fruits and typical Vietnamese snacks. All was deliciously sweet - their very found of their sugar over here.



That afternoon I rented a bicycle and headed off exploring the nearby islands. As a cycled around children ran out to say hello and people stuck their head out the window to have a look at the rare species of a startlingly white Irish person! The locals were open, friendly and curious, a nice change from the bustling city of Saigon. I stayed another night but thunder shock the hut that evening and as rain started to drip into the dorm I decided it was time to head off and moved North the next morning.