Tai is waiting for us in the hotel lobby after breakfast to take us on a guided tour of Châu Đốc’s markets. We start with various stalls and shops in the centre of the town, piled high with fermented fish and a plethora of fruit and vegetables, palm nuts and palm sugar, plus the exotic likes of bread fruit and dragon fruit. 

I’m looking for the fabled durian fruit which apparently tastes like heaven but smells like hell. Its pungent aroma is banned in places like Singapore as the stench is so putrid, but its flesh is supposedly a delicious custard-like thing of beauty. Sadly there are none to be found anywhere but in amongst the various exotic things on offer we do see dried frogs on sticks being sold as breakfast snacks. Not ones for us…

We dodge scooters belching thick black smoke as they weave through the narrow aisles amongst the stalls and then move indoors to the clothes markets which are piled high with tens of thousands of clothes, bags, textiles, toys, kitchen goods and general tat; mountains of things that no-one really needs but a stark display of the terrible disposable plastic consumerism that afflicts us all. More interestingly are the various packets of paper clothes and fake money for sale, which will be set fire to in order to honour the arsonists’ ancestors over the new year festivities. 

The smell of livestock and meat gets ever more potent as we walk down to the riverside, and head back to the market area we walked through on our first night in Châu Đốc. It proves a full-on, and distinctly challenging, assault on the senses as we walk past buckets of gasping fish, cages of live animals and piles of skinned frogs, trying to avoid being splashed by squatting women machete-ing hunks of meat with blood running down the metal surfaces, mixing with entrails on the floor. It’s nauseatingly raw and brutal and confirms once again our decision to become vegetarian a few years ago.

We’re happy to return to the hotel and are checked out and in the car with Tai and Hai before ten o’clock. Ahead of us is a three-hour drive through a string of towns and villages as we head to our next destination. After an hour or so we come to the relatively big city of Long Xuyên, its traffic, roads and buildings proving far more modern and developed than Châu Đốc, and soon after stop at a crocodile theme park for coconut coffee.

We don’t linger long in the reptile farm however, keen to reach Cần Thơ, the government capital of the Mekong Delta and Vietnam’s fourth largest city (after Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Haiphong, all of which will be visited later on this trip) in time for lunch. Hai drives us straight to a restaurant called So Hôm on the riverfront and Tai arranges a table for us overlooking the water, right next to the mooring for many of the river cruisers.

We order delicious plates of vegetable noodles and spicy tofu & lemongrass, with chilled beer and wine to wash it down, and watch the world go by, before pottering around the shops nearby. I don’t know if it’s the alcohol or sunshine, but we’re seduced into buying a couple of very nice silk shirts, a cap, a t-shirt and some fridge magnets by a very charming lady… which after a friendly bit of bargaining we get for less than a tenner in total. 

It’s incredibly hot in afternoon sun but we go for a walk along the riverfront, stopping for photos in front of a huge statue of Uncle Ho (Chi Minh) which is surrounded by communist flags, before we say farewell to Tai & Hai for the day when they drop us at the Victoria Hotel, the sister property to the one in Châu Đốc.

Oh, but it’s lovely! A grander affair, with two fabulous pools, and a glamorous lobby, we feel immediately at home, especially when we’re shown to a rather sumptuous room looking straight out across the gardens to the river. Slightly disappointed that we’re only here for one night, we immediately pull on swim shorts and flip flops and head down to drink cocktails by the pool and swim in its beautiful warm water.

However, when the sun sets and the mosquitos start emerging we venture back indoors and dress for dinner, taking advantage of the hotel’s river-boat transfer back to the heart of Cần Thơ for some evening fun. The city is a revelation, vibrant with illuminations and pumping nightlife, and teeming with restaurants, street food and a bustling, exciting night market. It’s like an exotic Blackpool – a holiday destination for locals and the ever-present Chinese tourist contingent – but with more Westerners than we’ve seen to date. 

We have dinner at Nam Bo, a great restaurant where we opt for spring rolls, green beans and garlic and tandoori vegetables, a far safer bet than the Snake Feast on offer, which is a serpent-based set menu. Suitably refreshed with some cold beer we wander back along the river-front enjoying the throngs of people, the neon lights, the throbbing music, glittering boats, water-lanterns and the newly-built illuminated bridge that connects to our hotel. 

Cần Thơ has proved to be an unexpected pleasure, an unknown city where we could have easily spent more time exploring and enjoying its various attractions, but tomorrow brings us what we hope will be one of the highlights of our trip. We’re boarding a beautiful boat to cruise along the Mekong in style; a dash of luxury on the water.