We return to HCMC today starting with an 8am departure from our homestay and a short boat ride back to the mainland. There’s several activities planned on the way; first up: seeing a terracotta factory.

It’s rather an organic operation. They use rice husks for fuel, sand from the river and clay from the rice fields as their ingredients.

A 40 minute trip in the boat brought us to a red brick factory. It’s a massive industry here ergo the nickname “Red Kingdom”. New technologies and pollution control however has caused many traditional clay brick plants to close. The government is finally stepping in to help these families transform their factories into tourist-based businesses such as homestays, souvenir shops, demonstrations, etc.

Next was a slow trip up a side canal for 45 minutes to the place where we launched the bicycles that appeared onboard overnight.  Canals, rice paddies, pretty flowering bushes but it’s still the jungle: 88° feeling like 98°…. = hot, sweaty fun.

Our boat picked us up, wherever we were, and it was an hour trip on ever-widening canals, to rejoin the Mekong River and the pickup location for our bus for the 3 hour drive back to HCMC.

And today is the last full day of this, my 2nd of 3, tours in SE Asia. The group met up for a final dinner at a local restaurant and tomorrow morning we all go our separate ways. For me, I stay right here in the same hotel as Tour 3 starts tomorrow night: Classic Cambodia.