The Mekong Delta

I think my highlight of the entire trip came when we visited the Mekong Delta - an area of the country with about 18 million people located 2 - 3 hours south of Saigon. This is the part of the country that you see in Vietnam War movies - lush green forests with rivers and huge rainfalls during rainy season. The farms that we drove past on the way to the delta were actually the battlegrounds during the 'American War'.
Once we got to the delta we boarded a gorgeous boat called the Cai Be Princess  (Cai Be is the town we departed from) and cruised through the tributaries that make up the delta:

Throughout our trip through the delta and marshlands we made interesting stops, including a visit to a small village for lunch and a 'factory' on the banks of the river. One factory we visited collected harvested rice and turned it into popular Vietnamese products such as pop rice, rice cakes & rice paper (below):