Just a quick post...

Well I met up with my tour group yesterday... there's 6 people total including myself.. a lady from NZ (trish), a bloke from Australia (roger), a couple of girls from England (Louise and Hellena) and a guy from the states, Clint. After doing the general introductions thing we did Dinner down in the market (I had soft shelled crab with Tamarind sauce.. it was bueno! nice to eat crab without all the anoying work to shell it) and then headed out for a few drinks in a local expat bar, which though hardly an "authentic" vietnamese experience it did offer some amusing opportunities to watch drunken hash house harrier members failing badly at pool.

Our guide is an Australian guy who used to be a beef/sheep farmer in Aussie (by the name of Mark) who gave it all away and relocated to Hanoi in vietnam after holidaying here a few years back... obviously with his most recent job being that of a intrepid guide for the south east asian area.

Today we jumped a bus and headed to the border town (with Cambodia) of Chau Doc.. where I'll be hanging for a couple of days and then eventually will go for a bit of jaunt on the Mekong in a boat equipped with Hamocks.. which sounds pleasant enough
;o)

On the way out of Saigon/HCMC we popped into the interesting and rather daft looking Cao Dai temple, Cao Dai being a rather unique religion encompassing another of other religions and our special friend the all seeing eye of illuminati fame ;o) (http://www.laze.net/papers/caodai.php).

So far the scenery in the south of Vietnam is great.. there are hundreds of canals and waterways weaving across this area and all connecting with the Mekong, being plied by various live-aboard ships carrying all manor of things from fish to fertiliser.. very cool.