Arrived in Saigon, now called Ho Chi Minh City since the liberation in 1975, although no one seems to use the new name, it had been Saigon for centuries. Sound more romantic too. It is a busy city, filled with mopeds. Statistics show something like over 200 new mopeds register with the municipality each day! The city is very grand, with ornate buildings and wide boulevards. Very clean too! It reminds me a bit of Paris, and is also segmented into a series of districts; we are staying at the Majestic Hotel in district 1, on the Saigon waterfront. It's very posh. One of the most famous hotels in the city, it's been around since 1925 and has hosted a cast of famous guests throughout the year. Most notably Catherine Deneauve and Graham Greene.

Spent our first evening exploring the neighborhood on foot. We are very near the large central market and opera house. There is a building site next to our hotel which is being designed by Arup (can't seem to escape the influences of work). Had sunset drinks on the rooftop of the Rex hotel, where the US military daily press briefings took place during the war. Wandered on and introduced my parents to the glories of mangosteen from a street vendor. Then a great dinner at a restaurant called Quan An Ngon, where you can sample 'safe' street food from all regions of the country. Seafood pancakes, spring rolls, papaya salad, sticky rice, beer over ice, oh-my!

Early rise the next morning for an hour drive south to the Mekong Delta. We picked up our southern fleet of bicycles in Tan An for a 50km ride. It's an incredibly lush and fertile part of the country. We cycled through backroads along rice patties and plantations (dragonfruit, mangos, bananas, and coconuts) making stops along the way. We had an introduction to rice harvesting and visited a cashew nut factory. It was extremely labor intensive, each nut is hand-processed, the final step is a scraping with an exacto knife by hand! The girls were very entertained by the tall giants in our group in their spandex unitards and giggled and twittered at us. It was gorgeous but so hot, difficult riding in the 90+ heat. I must have gone through six bottles of water. Our ride ended with a seafood lunch in My Tho and a visit to the Vinh Trang Pagota to see the humongous laughing Buddha.