King Mekong?

I'm a bit confused. We've been to so many countries and seen so many movies in the last couple of weeks I can't remember which of the giant cockroaches, naked natives, cobra wine and temples with skull heads were from Narnia, King Kong or the Mekong Delta. I'm four entire countries and at least as many films behind with the blog, so forgive me if the details are a little conflated.

I liked Saigon. I sat in a bar for the whole day drinking beers and coffee, eating the occasional meal when I felt like it, reading photocopied history and watching the locals on the street outside try to sell photocopied novels. The entire day cost two quid, and that includes the hotel and the six hundred fake DVD's I bought.

Vietnam won the football again (I think they were playing Madame Tussauds B team this time) so we were treated to the Saigon version of the fabulous mad motorbike flag-waving riot. It's a pity their team has a red national flag, but seeing the entire city flooded with a procession of chanting Vietnamese draped in red, you can understand why the Americans tragically mistook them for Communists.

As life was easy, comfortable, colourful and cheap in Saigon, we decided to leave immediately so that we could sleep on a tiled piece of concrete in the middle of a mosquito-infested swamp. This was what is known as a "home-stay." We actually paid extra for this, on the understanding that it would add authenticity to our mekong delta trip. It was quite interesting. We discovered that the inhabitants of the Mekong delta live a simple agrarian lifestyle without proper beds or any hot water, and that they mostly support Manchester United. Seriously, "Manchester United" were the only two words of English our host spoke, and whilst the house only had partial walls, concrete beds and a pig in the back garden, there was a 30 inch TV featuring all the Premiership matches in Dolby surround sound!



After showering in cold water in the yard next to the pig, we were escorted by boat to the Cai Rang floating market. We then visited a man with snakes and a magically clean toilet. Or was that in Harry Potter? Later that afternoon we discovered how they make rice noodles out of dogs.