Today we went on yet another trip!! This time to the Mighty Mekong Delta.

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There’s probably not much that we can say that the pictures won’t say so much better. It really is a “mighty” river and it brings so much to the local population that is generally very poor. It brings work on the river, food, transport, renewed fertility to the soil every year and, of course, tourists and their tourist $.

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However, there is one story to tell. Neil had a zip break in one of his pockets in his shorts quite some time ago. As he’s already lost one wallet it did make sense to get it repaired. Finally today we managed it. During our trip, we had stopped for lunch and some free time to explore Ben Tre, one of the many islands in the delta. Neil spotted a lady with a sewing machine at the side of the road and decided that this might be a good time to effect the repair. Great fun was in store for all concerned as we had no Vietnamese and she had no English. Through a series of signs, pointing at watches and showing money it was agreed that it would take just a few minutes to replace the zip and cost 15000D (£0.60).

One small problem, the lady needed his shorts and he had no others to wear, and as usual was not wearing any pants!! “No problem” said Neil as he disappeared to the back of the shop and a few minutes later he reappeared shorts in hand and wearing his polo shirt as a pair of shorts. Everyone burst out laughing, the lady, her husband, her mum and her son. The lady then disappeared on her bike to buy a zip and returned shortly afterwards as did a long line of locals to look at this crazy tourist sat at the side of the road wearing his shirt for shorts.

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It was very funny, lots of laughs and hopefully a tourist has given some locals some revenue and a story to tell for a long time to come.