We said goodbye to our guide Kim at the airport as we took our journey north.

Lots of hugs and fond farewells. She is such a lovely woman. Being a good tour guide is tricky and she has it just right. She chatted non stop and had so many stories. We laughed a lot.

Some of the things she taught us :-

How to say hello, goodbye, thank you and cheers in Vietnamese. Ok, so Tim is still mostly asking for the bill in Spanish but we made progress.

You should drink white wine because it’s good for your skin. With that and yesterday’s magic jelly I’ll be looking 25 by the end of the holiday.

Wives are rice and girlfriends are noodles and sometimes men fancy some noodles instead of rice but they should never mix them. It made sense at the time…

People in the north of Vietnam eat dog and cat with red wine because it’s colder up there and they say it keeps them warm.

The words for pineapple, watermelon and coconut are all spelled the same in Vietnamese but pronounced differently – such a confusing language.

This is a communist country but despite low wages and still having to pay tax, nothing comes for free. All education and health care must be paid for. There is no welfare state.

Don’t leave your chopsticks in a V when you finish your meal.

Kim’s friends say she is black because her skin is “dark”. The women strive to be white, covering head to toe even in the sweltering heat and the rich spend a fortune on cosmetic procedures and creams to whiten their skin. She thought it hilarious that I spend money getting sprayed to look orange. It is hilarious, ridiculous, when you think about it. They want to look like me and I want to look like them. But I’m sticking with the fake tan for now.

If you touch a Vietnamese woman you have to marry her. I think we may have lost something in translation there but Tim has invested in a straitjacket all the same. He has enough grief with the one wife already.

……….

Kim has a 5 year old son who she adores. She’s a lone parent living with her mother, sister and brother in law in a 3 bedroom flat. It sounds like they get on well. Her husband died a year ago. She’s philosophical. “This is life” she says. She believes in Karma. If it exists she’s got it good for the next life ❤️

A two and a half hour journey South took us well away from the bustle of Ho Chi Min to the Mekong Delta. At the island of Ben Tre we saw coconuts, a lot of coconuts. First the processing unit which is basically a group of workers who graft from 3am to 5pm, each with their own repetitive task, smashing, peeling or chopping. They get paid about $10 a day which seems little for such hard work in the heat.

We saw the coconut powder factory then crossed the river to see the coconut charcoal plant. Coconut overload by this point although we were quite happy to sample the fruit.

We carried on down the river and landed on a smaller island where it was a short cycle ride to our next stop, a farm that makes suong sam jelly. Never heard of it? It’s a jelly made out of leaves. It tastes like leaves but you can add sugar so it tastes like sweet leaves. This stuff is a miracle. Apparently it makes women beautiful, it helps children sleep better and it keeps men virile. I could only manage half of mine so I’m only half beautiful today and Tim slept like a log last night, but he is a child at heart. Won’t get into the virile thing – parents and children about 😳

No cars on the island so back on our bikes. I’m a wobbly cyclist but this was pleasant, cycling down paths running along the canals and shaded by palms and fruit trees, the constant sound of cockerels crowing and the odd dog coming to greet you.

We arrived at a house in a clearing by a canal and were greeted by the owners who were providing our lunch. We were getting treated to the “rustic experience”. A traditional family Thai meal. Slightly awkward in that it was just us and they were so attentive but the ambience was great and they couldn’t have been kinder hosts.

They had proudly made everything themselves and produced or caught most of the ingredients. First was an elephant-eared fish.

They removed the flesh and made us several large winter rolls with noodles and fresh basil and mint. Then 2 huge prawns and spring rolls. At this point I’m starting to panic. Kim has told us about the legendary hospitality of the Southern Vietnamese and how much pleasure they get from feeding guests. But she also said that it’s impolite to not finish what you are given as this is seen as rude and ungrateful. You know I don’t do big portions so I was busily offloading food to Tim when heir backs were turned. So the main dish arrives. Chicken curry with rice and morning glory. Then an unusual sweet soup of noodles, vegetables, prawns and pineapple. Then a sticky rice cake and fruit. All absolutely delicious but I was starting to lose the will so I wrapped my cake in a napkin and snuck it into Tim’s bag so as not to offend. Our hosts spoke no English but we communicated well because they were so friendly and kind, a common theme we are finding with the people we have met so far.

We waved our goodbyes and waddled to the canal to board a bamboo rowboat that glided us through the shade of the mangroves to the bigger boat that would take us back to Ben Tre.

Back to the frantic hustle of Ho Chi Min.

Flying north tomorrow….

For some reason the blog won’t load. Maybe the internet isn’t good enough for all our fabulous photos. If you search the blog for Saigon it will show. In the meantime I’ll see if it works with a better connection when we move on tomorrow x