We woke up early this morning to go on Mekong Delta trip through Semester at Sea. I refuse to go on any big SAS trips because they are so expensive and being put onto a set schedule when you want to see something just isn’t fun. However, I’ve done a couple small day trips and so far most of them have been good. Our trip to the Mekong Delta was perhaps the best one I’ve been on thus far though. I heard this same comment from many other people.
So the bus left the ship around 8am, our first stop was at this big Buddhist temple that was on the way. I’m not sure if they ever really told us the name of it, but it was a pretty big temple with a huge statue of Buddha in front of it giving the Buddhist peace sign. There were two men inside who were saying a prayer or doing some sort of song/ritual when we went inside. It was a beautiful temple, I’ll be sure to upload those pictures as soon as I can.
Our next stop was in the middle of nowhere to see people working in a rice field. I’m not really sure why we stopped there. They parked the buses right on the side of the street and we had to cross the street, then we just saw what a rice field looks like and how they harvest the fields. This is the kind of thing that just screams tourist to me and is kind of embarrassing to be a part of. I don’t like sticking out like a tourist in a big group.
Our next stop was pretty pointless as well. After our guide described how a market works in Vietnam, she dropped us off at one. Understand that almost all shops in Vietnam are in a marketplace type environment where you bargain for your final price. Never pay their initial asking price, always bargain. Anyway, we looked around for a little bit and then left to finally get to the Mekong Delta area.
First, the group of about 25 of us hopped on this Vietnamese boat (wood built, not designed like a regular boat you would see in America) and crossed the river, which is a huge area. We also were able to see a big bridge that was being built to cross the river. Our guide didn’t say when it began being built, but said that it is suppose to be done in September. To me, it looked like they had quite a ways to go, it looks pretty cool though. The river was full of a lot of boats, the banks are also lined with docks, boats, and houses.
Once on the other side of the river we stopped at this coconut candy making factory. I shouldn’t really call it a factory, because it isn’t like a traditional factory that you would think of. It was just a sheltered area with a couple machines to strip the coconuts and make them into powder, then the fudge needed to mold it into candy. The process is kind of hard to explain… Hopefully my pictures will clear that up a bit. Anyway, they gave us some free samples of the candy that was freshly made that morning and hadn’t yet been put into packaging. There were a bunch of different kinds, but every kind I tried was absolutely AWESOME. Soooo good. We watched them cut the candy strips then roll them in rice paper and package them. Then a few feet away from that they sold them. I bought 7 packages (between 10-20 pieces per package) of all different flavors that I’ve vowed not to eat until I get home and can share it with all of you. It’s going to be hard not to eat it, but it’ll be all that much better once I can with you :)
Once everyone was done trying and buying candy we hopped on a cart hooked up to these little mini-horses that almost looked like donkeys. To be honest, I thought they were donkeys at first… More like mini-horses (Rob&Big plug) I guess. These poor horses took like 5 of us up this road (with a hill) for about a mile, then we got into these smaller boats that held 4 passengers, then a rower in the front and back. This was about a 15 minute ride that took us through a small canal area leading back to the big river. It was beautiful to see. They also row boats different than we traditionally do, which is kind of weird, but it seems to work for them.
Our next stop was for a traditional Vietnamese lunch. Now this was interesting! First we were served this whole fried fish that was standing upright. A waitress came and chopped it up and put it into little spring rolls right in front of us. I have no idea what kind of fish it was, but it was delicious! The sight of it was a little different than anything that I’ve ever ate though! Along with the meal we got some fresh shrimp, spring rolls, and a few other things that I’m not really sure what it was. It was all good though and definitely filled us up! I would go back to eat there any day.
Our last stop before heading back was to eat some fresh fruit grown locally in Vietnam. I forget the name of all of them besides pineapple and papaya. It was a group of 5 different dishes though, I enjoyed them all even though I had no idea what they were.
So, like I said before, overall it was a really good SAS trip. The heat and humidity in Vietnam is terrible and we were sweating pretty much the entire time, but the food was delicious and the scenery was amazing.
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