Adventure to Asia: Vietnam Pt. 2

Thursday, July 31: Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

We took a tour of the Mekong River Delta with the same travel agency that took us to the Cu Chi Tunnels. It was about an hour bus ride to the river and our first stop was at a rest area where Jillian and I got Vietnamese iced coffees and she played with this dog a short leash. The second stop as at a temple, and if I remember correctly it's the largest temple in the area. I could be completely wrong about that.

Our final stop was at the river. We walked down to the docks and hopped in. We rode for about 20 minutes then we took our first lunch stop off the river. We sat with an American guy and 3 Polish guys. One of the Polish guys looked like Ralphie from A Christmas Story! They had bought a meal with a large fish, and it looked so gross. Apparently it tasted as bad as it looked.

Our next river stop was at a candy making plantation. It was a family run business that made coconut candies. They showed us how it was made and let us taste them. If any of you were lucky enough to try some of the candy that I brought back that is where I bought it! They also made honey and we drank some tea with it. It was good but there were so many bees flying around and I have a huge fear of being stung by bees, which is weird because I've been stung by bees before.

Afterwards we got into small canoes and they took us down the river a bit more. We got off at a stone path and walking through to the main path was so pretty. It felt like I was walking through a town on water because there were so many streams running through it. Our final stop was at a place where we ate lots of local fruits and listened to regional music.

We were pretty quiet on our way back just because we were so tired. Later that night we went to a restaurant called Món Huê. It was the first time I was out that night in Vietnam because I was always afraid of being robbed. I was surprised how busy it was and it made me feel more at ease that there were so many people around. I ordered some weird rice dish and the server knew I didn't know how to eat it so she had to show me. I felt like an ignorant American.