I headed south from Saigon to the Mekong Delta to see some floating markets and river life. I met some volunteers from England and Australia on the bus from the Ben Thanh market to the bus terminal and decided to follow them to My Tho. I took a taxi with them to their hotel, got a room, and joined them for dinner. Afterward, I arranged for a four-hour private boat tour of the nearby river the next day. I was taken to tourist traps on three islands, none of which had anything worthwhile. The only redeeming part was a really cool ride on a row boat down a tiny stream in the middle of a jungle. Ben Tre was just across the river, and probably more of the same, so I decided to skip it. I rode a motorbike taxi for an hour to Vinh Long and did a “home stay.” I use quotation marks because I had pictured staying the night with a family in their home, maybe sleeping in the guest room they have friends and family stay in, but this was not the case. At least, not unless average Vietnamese families live in hotels and never speak to their guests. As a bonus, there was no air con and the bathroom plumbing stopped working. I’ve since learned that most home stays in Vietnam are like that, i.e. rustic hotels, so if you really want to have the “real” experience, at least do it north of the delta where you won’t miss air con. I met a couple of funny English guys who were doing a bicycle tour and passed the evening with them drinking beers and telling stories. I hired another private boat in the early morning (early for me is 8) to take me to the Cai Be floating market. When I got there, I was disappointed to find that it was already over. No one had thought to mention to me that I was leaving too late to see anything. At this point, I was embittered on the whole delta and ready to leave, but I decided to give it one more shot. I continued on to Can Tho, getting scammed into overpaying for the bus ticket by someone who didn’t work for the bus company. I arranged yet another private boat for the next day to see two floating markets, a backwater canal, and a noodle factory. We left at 5 (dear lord!) in the morning and it took us an hour to get there, but holy shit was it worth it! The tour lasted for eight hours and I saw some amazing sights, and even walked across a monkey bridge. It was amazing. That was what I had been looking for. Satisfied, I arranged for an open tour bus back to Saigon.