Feeling a bit claustrophobic in Vietnam's hectic capital city, we headed out on a boat trip to the Mekong Delta. Tired from our bus journey to the port, we were all extremely happy to find that instead of chairs, the boat had reclining hammock style loungers!

Our first stop was an island and a trip to the 'coconut candy' factory, where we all got to see how the sweets were made using traditional methods. After far too many free samples, we left on a beautiful scenic walk of the island, finally encountering our next form of transport! This time, it was a man on a scooter pulling a mini trailer! Clambering on, we sped through the island, taking in all the lush tropical scenery. We had a quick stop a local house where we were served fresh fruit. Our guide E asked whether any of us would like to try the local delicacy of snake blood! Three of the guys on our trip Joel, Tom and Ross decided that they would so E made the phone call to ask someone to catch a local snake. We hopped back on our trailers and headed round to the other side of the island for lunch. When we arrived, the man's house who we were dining at, produced a bag with a cobra in! With all of us crowding around he put the bag on the table, pulled the snake out and slit its throat! He then asked Ross to hold its tail while he poured the blood into three shot glasses! By this point the guys were all looking rather peaky!! However, on the count of three they downed their glass of fresh snake blood!

We then sat down to an amazing meal, where we were served course after course of Vietnamese food! The snake was also put on the bbq and handed round for everybody to try! Our next form of transport was a traditional Vietnamese long boat, and we all adorned traditional hats and were rowed down the river to meet our boat.

After a long day we headed back to the hotel, and went with a couple of the other guys in our group to say a sad farewell to our fantastic guide for Cambodia 'Long'. We then grabbed some quick tea and got back on the bus for the train station, where we boarded our first Vietnamese Night Train!

We were really expecting the worst, however the cabins were great! We had a flat screen tv and air con! Sharing the cabin with a lovely Australian couple on our trip Emily and Tom, we played cards and drank far too much beer and Mekong Whisky... (oh dear)!