After Rach Gia, Ha Tien proved to be a surprising treat. The town has a very large waterfront, where sea and river meet. Ha Tien itself is located on the border between Cambodia and Vietnam. We had to brace two very high ascents to the top of two hotels, before settling on a lovely one that was kind enough to give us a third-floor room.

The town kept delighting us, with lovely greenery about, large pagodas and ornate temples, many colourful side streets, and a very large white Catholic church. We decided that it was long overdue to visit some recommended sights (we've been quite bad at this tourist thing I'm afraid, always opting for long strolls and markets instead).

The first was the Mac Cuu tombs, where this ruler's entire family is buried on a hill - the Hill of Tombs i believe it's called - with large tombs and gravestones. Nothing as impressive as the European art that we've seen, but still a worthwhile visit. We briefly stopped at a pagoda and admired the beautiful bonsai trees, and the statues.

The hill gave us a brilliant workout, which we happily concluded with some beers at a corner cafe. William bought a delicious but strange waffle-like pastry for us. Watching the woman make it was interesting - we are still not sure what it was made of! The woman smeared a thick paste onto a little waffle pan, then popped on a lid and waited. A few minutes alter a golden brown treat emerged.

Once again we hunted the many street food spots to find supper. Only after we had had supper, did we stumble upon an enormous market near our hotel - with stalls filled with every kind of seafood! And clothing stalls, toy stalls, and produce stalls in-between. It was rather fun to explore.

The main aim of going to Ha Tien was to organize our ferry tickets to Phu Quoc island. What an incredible task that turned out to be. We were exhausted. The Vietnamese seem to be content with the strangest way and order of doing things. We finally managed to book our tickets, and by 14h00 Thursday afternoon we were seated on the Superdong ferry.