Christmas on the beach - Vietnam

Crossing the border from Cambodia to Vietnam at Ha Tien was a suprisingly pleasant experience as land border crossings go. No queues, helpful staff and no one tried to obtain additional 'express service charges' of any kind. Ha Tien was a really chilled fishing village, a nice change to busy Phnom Penh, lots of local people selling street food and seafood everywhere. We left the next day to Phu Quoc island, about 50km off the coast, catching the local ferry even though the tourist agent told us that it was not running and that we needed to catch the tourist ferry at 3 times the cost. We are slowly learning how the travel game works!

The Island of Phu Quoc was where we spent Christmas and we could not have asked for a more idyllic setting. Finding accomodation was tricky and we spent about 4-5 hours scowering the place until we found a nice bungalow just off the beach. Thanks to a little extra budget for crimbo we could afford to live it up for a week or so.

Seafood BBQ with lots of local pepper, lime and tamarind sauce

Local kid getting some air

Poor local kids being dressed up by their parents - a bit hot for that kind of outfit - Leah loved it

Chrismas day cocktail - Rum...umm

Onto Can Tho where the floating markets on the Mekong Delta are everywhere


Local woman being put to work in the grueling midday heat of the paddy fields..........