The Mekong Delta

We've sailed further south and docked in a hot and steamy Saigon, or as we know it, Ho Chi Min city. We drove down Highway 1A to the city which is a place of vast contrasts. The main city has been greatly developed with wide roads, grass verges and cultivated road islands. The traffic is absolutely crazy with even more motorbikes carrying every possible commodity, the most worrying being small children. I managed to capture one man with, what I would guess to be 2 children under the age of three. Although he was wearing a helmet the children were totally unprotected. That said, we've seen no accidents and although their system seems suicidal, it appears to work.
Our guide had arranged for us to have lunch at a beautiful hotel resort with purpose built bungalows which are the lovely hotel rooms sited along a lagoon. Authentic Vietnamese food was prepared for us before we picked up our 6 seater launch with a tiny woman driver, you'll just have to imagine the faces on the 3 male passengers faces!
This was to take us around the Mekong Delta complete with stilt buildings along the riverside and their famous floating markets. This is a very basic existence and life is threatened by the dams planned to be built further up the river. Life is bound to change dramatically in the next few years and who can tell if it is for the better. We were able to explore the area and saw rice paper being made, the husks of the rice provide the fuel for the oven which provides the heat for cooking the rice paper. Once again, basic but it works.
This is a country with 2 seasons - hot and hotter! Its alphabet has 24 of our letters (no W or Z) but by using reflexes, accents and dots on the 5 vowels increases its total letters to 46!
We returned to our ship in searing heat, tomorrow we are due to visit the main areas in Saigon before leaving Vietnam and sailing on to Thailand.
Thank you all for your comments and for looking in! Internet is not easy and I don't have much time to comment or reply or thank you for stars and hearts. I am very grateful!