4.1.2003 - on bus to Ho Chi Minh City The whole distance (~200km. the fare was around 6usd) was built with small, colorful villages so no chance of getting bored on the way. The bus was extremely slow (the trip took over 4.5 hours) and an american couple sitting next to me weren't too happy about it - they had booked the next trip out of HCMC at 6pm and naturally didn't make it. It was annoying to listen them whining to the driver (who, of course, understood none of it) about him having to compensate for their loss of money, but I didn't say anything. I bet they learned a lesson about making assumptions of travel times in indochina. Two middleaged germans sitting behind us had brought along local girls to "keep them company during the bus trip". Yeah right.. we arrived to HCMC well after sundown, and gasped at the sight. HCMC (formerly Saigon) was nothing like the country we had seen the past weeks, rather than a manifestation of The Honda Dream with all the lights, modern clothes and luxurious hotels. What a disheartening sight. 4.1.2003 - Ho Chi Minh City Our hotel was in the city center, a few blocks from the main streets. Despite the short distance, the district seemed quite different from the center.. somehow I had a bad feeling about the place as we arrived. Also that they charged us 20usd for a room with not even a window. After settling in, we went to explore and had dinner in vietnamese fashion. Also met the first finnish speaking people on the way. By the looks of them, they had just arrived - and I even overheard one of them wondering how on earth doesn't anyone speak finnish at their hotel :-) IMO there should be a law prohibiting certain people ever leaving the home country. After dinner we toured the bars. Those there are plenty in HCMC. The prices were more than double compared to the rest of the country, and the evening ended up actually costing money. At the brink of passing out from exhaustion, we wondered back to the hotel and went to sleep immediately. After an hour or so, there was heavy knocking on our door. We did nothing, hoping the prick would leave. After the second knocks, I yelled something like "orrrorrrrr.. go away". Then I heard a key enter the lock and sprang to the door. I pressed my foot down against the door to prevent it from opening, and snapped "who's there?". The answer was "reception here. open up, it's the police." Luckily I was too tired to realize what he had said and was spared the heart attack. Behind the door were 4 local police officers, who entered our room, put the lights on and looked around. Us having no clothes on except meant shit for them. After a quick look they just left. Some 15minutes later we heard a woman screaming and fighting upstairs and past our door, as the police had found what they were looking for: it was a prostitute raid. At first light we checked out. 5.1.2003 - Ho Chi Minh City We went looking for a tour cafe who could get us tickets to Cambodia. Sometime after 8am we arrived at Sinh Cafe downtown, where we bought bus tickets for 6usd to Phnom Penh for the next day. The original plan was to go to the Mekong delta and continue with river boat from there up to Cambodia, but that route would have taken 3 days and we only had 2 days to spare. So we had a day to kill and I sure didn't want to spend it in HCMC, so we asked if we could make the 8.30 day trip to Mekong delta via Ben Tre. Yes, they told us, and off we went. The 5 minutes we had before departure we spent gathering what little breakfast we could find from the cafe.
	The travel agent we used in Ho Chi Minh City for the Mekong trip and the bus tickets to Cambodia.
5.1.2003 - Ben Tre and Mekong delta After a 2-hour bus trip we arrived in Ben Tre, a small riverside town with docks hosting the tourist boats. We got on one, and circled around in the delta for the day, visiting coconut farm (they produced different sorts of handicraft - we bought 10 pairs of chopsticks for 12k), a joint banana plant/bee farm and numerous exciting places on the way.
	Sitting in a river boat on our way to the inner parts of the island.
	View from the boat. The river was magnificent and full of life.
	More of the river..
	And then some.
	On the banana / bee farm there was this python weighing a good 25kg. I felt sort of sorry for the snake, as it was used as a garnishment for screaming tourists holding it on their shoulders.
	The farmers threw us a short show of traditional vietnamese leisure time activities. The little girl (age 6) sang very well.
	The riverboats we used when travelling on the main river.
	Worker on the coconut farm stirring the coconut milk mixture. They made candies out of the mass. Note the coconut shells they used for heating the mass - the coconuts were used completely in the process. A real natural product.
5.1.2003's night - back in Ho Chi Minh City We had booked a hotel (just around the corner) for the night for 25usd (included breakfast) so we went looking for dinner as soon as we returned from the river trip. On the way I had my photo taken on a street corner, because I needed one for the Cambodian visa. The four pictures cost a total of 10k. For dinner we had pasta, which tasted pretty damn good after all the seafood. After dinner we toured the bar scene for a couple of hours, visiting Guns And Roses -bar (the actual name of the bar) and some others westerner joints. Good fun. At about 9pm riikka ordered an Ao Dai (traditional vietnamese clothing) which would be tailored for her. We told the tailor we had to leave early so that we wouldn't be there the next day to pick it up - but he insisted making it overnight. Fine, we said, paid half in advance and went off. 6.1.2003 - Ho Chi Minh City At 7.30am the tailor brought the ready silken Ao Dai to our hotel. We had breakfast at a bar around the corner (remembered we had been there until one in the morning. the same staff members were still working at 8am) and headed for the bus leaving at 8.30.
	Riikka in the custom Ao Dai she had made for herself. It is 100% silk, hand made for her (over night) - and it cost 20usd. Work in Viet Nam really does not have much value.
	A better shot of the dress (in better light with a better camera. in a worse country though).
	I felt like purchasing souveniers too. The Royal Mekong Whiskey is made of rice of course, and it cost 12k per bottle.