Arrive in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) where you are met and transferred to our centrally located hotel. You meet your tour leader and the rest of the group today. We have a pre-trip briefing which is generally followed by an optional group meal out at one of Saigon's many fantastic eating spots.

Today you travel south to the Mekong Delta. Along the way you stop to see the various fascinating local industries. A highlight is cruising in a boat around the small canals in the Mytho region, which is a great way to observe the local lifestyle close-up. On arrival in Cai Be, we take a motor boat to visit an old traditional wooden house, built in 1838. It has been restored by a Japanese organisation in 2001 and is recognized by UNESCO. We transfer boats to be paddled in a traditional wooden sampan through the small canals. In the afternoon, return to the motor boat for a visit to a bonsai garden, a nursery farm and a pottery workshop. You arrive on an island near Vinh Long, where you will stay overnight in a local homestay, a small house situated on the waterways and surrounded by fruit gardens. The facilities here are basic, with everyone sleeping in a large communal room, but the experience is unique in that it offers you a chance to live the way the local people do (for one night at least!). All bedding is provided including mosquito nets. We have the opportunity to take a local bike ride around the island or relax in a hammock and soak up the local way of life before enjoying dinner cooked by a local family - watch out for the rice wine!

There are several interesting walks to enjoy in the surrounding village near our villa. A trip to Vinh Long enables you to explore the lively floating markets at Cai Be, which is also a base for the local boat-building industry. Later we stop the boat and walk through Buu Chau Buddhist pagoda and the surrounding village before a visit to a crocodile farm and stop at some other cottage industries for which this area is famous. We make our way back to Saigon by boat and road via Cai Be. We arrive in Saigon at roughly 4pm which is just in time to join our main Vietnam tour.