From Karen in Ho Chi Min City

Hi, back in Ho Chi Minh on our last day here, then we fly to Singapore for 2 days, then onto India to Nepal. We have had an interesting few days down on the Mekong Delta. The highlight was going on a boat ride on one of the "nine dragons" of the Mekong river and along one of the many canals. The local name for the Mekong is the "nine dragons" river, which refers to the nine branches that feed out from the Mekong river to create the delta.

It was interesting walking around on one of the islands and visiting a durian tree grower. We also saw a floating market, but were too late to see many of the smaller boats that would have been there very early in the morning. It was relaxing sitting by the Mekong in the evening in a hammock, drinking coconut milk , watching life go by, an endless assortment of boats and produce.

During our time in the delta we were able to film and take photos of the whole rice harvesting process from harvesting by hand, machine threshing, drying it out on large concrete pads, following the sacks of rice as they get put onto boats to go to the storage sheds and then trucked to the main cities. When we eat rice, I never realised there was so much work that goes into producing it.

Love to all Karen