Jo and Hayley's SEA tour

Hi all! We have arrived back to Saigon, staying at the Beautiful Saigon 2 Hotel, which is really nice, big room, flat screen tv and a computer in our room. After Cambodia, it is great to have access to communications again! Our sunset cruise never eventuated due to monsoonal rain, which lasted for two days. We also were going to a place called Bokor Station, but again inaccessible  due to rain and roads. We did take a tuk-tuk to a cave that had a stone temple inside, and had a great outing. The road was horrendous and the pot holes deep. If a puddle was deep enough the kids would swim in it. The countryside was beautiful, and rice planting had started in earnest. Such a different way of life, subsistence farming in action. We had to walk through a couple of paddocks, and ended up walking barefoot as our shoes turned into mud laden clogs. In spite of the rain we had an awesome day. The rain continued, and we decided to skip Kep and head back to Vietnam. We hired a car again to head to the border and walked across, something we hadn't done before. The drive to the boarder on a red muddy road through the rice paddies was one of the most picturesque drives I have ever had. Once we crossed the boarder we hired motodops (bikes with drivers) to Chau Doc. Initially the drivers wanted $10 dollars each, but I had been forewarned that the price should be around $3 so we stuck to that price. The bike drivers were good, distance turned out to be about 30kms away, and they took us to a decent hotel. Chau Doc is a nice town on the river, and could have spent more time there. Caught the bus to Saigon today, $6 and took about 5hrs. Happy to be back in Vietnam, and the girls planning on some shopping as Billi flies home on Friday. For the management at Rikitikitavi, thankyou for your comment. I initially asked for a fish dish, with jasmine rice, but it was unavailable, so asked for a chicken pesto and pasta dish, unavailable, asked for chicken skewers with a satay sauce, unavailable. Had bruschetta which was pretty ordinary, and a smoothie for $5 USD. I had read such good reviews, and sadly, was disappointed. The service, atmosphere and location was good though, overlooking the river and one of the prettiest sunsets I've seen.  Not much more to add, apart from having an early night after a couple of days travel. Thanks for all the comments, great to know our cat is in good hands! Congrats again to Mum! Love to all!