After getting to our hotel and eating lunch, some of us walked down to the Mekong with some locals who took us for a boat tour.
We cruised down the river in a low wooden boat, and stopped at the home of some fish farmers, who let us feed the 70,000 fish they housed under their floors, and they spoke to us a little about their business. Then we went to one of the banks and walked across a wooden bridge supported by stilts and went to see a woman hand making scarves. After trying on some of the saris I couldn't resist and ended up buying a scarf.
We made our way back to the hotel afterwards and then jumped on some motorbike taxis which drove us up a mountain to watch the sunset over Chau Doc. In the city I felt surprsingly confident and reassured tearing in and out of tight spaces, the sound of hundreds of horns filling the air and the wind rushing by. By the time we started to race up the mountain at, I would hazard, around 50mph with blind corners, on coming traffic, pot holes, stones, hair pin turns all to boot, my hands swiftly left the 'cool' grip on the back of the bike and relocated themselves tightly around the drivers' waist.
At the top we watched the sunset and had a beer, then it was 'weeee' all the way as we ripped back down the mountain. We stopped briefly at a local temple at the bottom then we were taken home..."it's so much more fun in the dark!"....
In the hotel we had dinner (I tried a piece of the 'rat' our tour leader bought for the table; I won't lie it tasted pretty good, and disconcertingly familiar...)and then the entire group trudged wearily up to bed, with another early start on the bill for tomorrow as we make our way to Saigon (Ho chi min).
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