Mekong Delta Part 2

Driver Wallace

6/19/17

Yesterday was really fun. In the morning we all went to breakfast which I’m realizing is pretty much the same thing every morning which tends to be eggs, bread with strawberry jam, this weird tapioca fruit thing that I like the most, and another fruit that I have no idea what it is called. After breakfast we all immediately went to go pick our bikes for the day. The bikes are pretty old so you need to make sure to get there early to pick one where the seat doesn’t sink, especially for tall people. We then went for a bike ride and first stopped at a market for about ten minutes. Personally since I’m super scared of the water here I buy bottled water wherever I go, so I bought two small waters. After the market we rode our bikes to a spot where the boat would pick us up and bring us across the channel to a brick making facility. Inside the facility was really hot and smoky smelling. There were also a lot of sculptures that are known to be on Easter island inside the facility that were being made. Then after we looked at the brick facility we went on a longer ride that felt like forever for some reason and made it to a place to stop for tea. The tea stop was nice because we were able to cool down for awhile.

After that we all went and continued riding the bikes until we made it back to the homestay at around 12:00 pm to eat lunch. After lunch we were all given the option to either rest until 4:00 pm or go to a play in the village at 2. I knew immediately I didn’t want to spend 4 long hours doing nothing, plus I want to get the most out of this trip possible, so I decided to go. After 2 hours of resting it was time to go to the play. We took the boat over to the village and walked like 10 yards and we were at the play. Once we were inside the play was beginning to start. I honestly had no idea what was going on and Marcus and I quickly realized that the kids are living the dads dream. I never saw a little kid in the play smile. The play was still very fun to be at because everything was new.  I had never seen that type of theatre before. After the play we all got pictures with the family of actors, then we went back to boat which took us to the homestay.

Once we got to the homestay we were all told to go grab our water clothes. We were given these black button down long sleeve shirts and long black pants and we then went into the creek in the back yard that was filled with catfish. When you get in the water, you put your leg into nearly waist deep of mud. It felt so strange, but it was really fun to get dirty. To catch the catfish, you just feel around in the mud until you feel a scaly thing and you grab the fish with your hands. Supposedly I’m the catfish king since I caught 6 or 7 - I’m not quite sure. After that, we all hopped out of the mud and went to the river where the boats are and hopped in the water to wash off. The water was so nice. The only thing about the water is that none of us knew whether it was dirty or not. We then all hopped out of the water and went to our rooms to shower and had free time until 6:30 which was when dinner was.

At 6:30 we all went out to dinner and the first thing I saw was this big dried out fish on a stand in the middle of the table. It looked so gross. I made sure I sat upwind so I wouldn’t have to smell it. Then one of the workers from the homestay came out and cut the fish up and made little spring rolls with the fish. The fish was actually pretty good. We then got a delicious stew with beef that was tender and had a little bit of fat to it which made it really flavorful. Most beef we’ve had was really hard to eat because most of the cows in Vietnam are working cows. We also were able to eat the catfish we caught earlier in a stew that was made on the table.

After dinner we had about 20 minutes of free time until we had to go back out to watch a small little concert. The workers at the homestay are really good singers. You could tell that the singers were very excited to sing. The songs were all very good and we even got Mr. Hau to sing two songs to us. After the small concert, we all went to our rooms where we had free time for the rest of the night. I sort of just talked with Brandon and Marcus until I passed out.