April 10
We get up super early to get on the bus that is taking us to
the Mekong Delta. We get to the agency
and then onto a big bus that bumps along for nearly 3 hours before arriving at
a dock where we board a smaller boat that takes us to a nearby island called
Dragon Island. We disembark and walk
through the jungle to a hut where we are having some honey tea and enjoying the
local items for sale by the people living here.
The tea is amazing and the honey is made at this location. We buy some honey brittle and then we get to
pose with a python that was caught nearby.
Sam is the only guy among us that is brave enough to actually pose with
the snake.….the more cowardly of us simply lean in to have our picture made
with him and his serpent. Afterward, we
follow along a small path deep into the jungle interior and make our way along
the water canals and see the boats flying past one another back and forth along
the river. We soon come upon a small “dock”
(area made from a couple of wooden planks) and
we are told to go into the boats in groups of four. Soon enough, we are off and in a race to get
to wherever it is that we are going. On
the front of the boat is a woman squatting onto the very bow of the boat and
another woman in the back. They are
paddling furiously and we are zooming along the canals at this point. You wonder how people really live here and
now we know. The river provides a source
of commerce and travel and an entire way of life. It is really cool. We arrive at our original boat and get back
on board for a short ride to Turtle Island where we will have lunch and visit a
coconut candy factory. We arrive at our
lunch destination and are given the choice of having a “river” fish that is
deep fried. I have heard about this very
fish from Grandy and Bonne with rave review, so we go for the extra expense to
have it for lunch. It arrives at our
table standing up between some small wooden supports and the server picks the
meat off the skeleton and places it into some rice paper wrappers with herbs
and glass noodles. She then wraps it up
like a spring roll and gives one to each of us to try. It is absolutely delicious. Then we are served a meal of rice and chicken
with veggies. Soon we are off to the
candy factory. We get on a motor boat
and are off through the winding canals back into the middle of nowhere. We keep going until we must be at the
complete interior of the island and soon find a small dock where there is a
path leading back into the jungle. We
come upon a large hut where there is equipment for pressing coconut and heating
it to candy stage and then where they cut and wrap it up for sale in
stores. We are able to sample the candy
and, of course, purchase some if we like it.
We get a little of it for later and then we are back on a boat to go to
hear some traditional music before returning to Saigon by boat. We are getting pretty tired at this point and
are a bit ready for the day to begin winding down. The music is interesting, but I believe we
are all weary at this point. Once the
music is done, we get onto a speedy boat that will take us back to Saigon in
about 2 hours (we are told). We leave
around 3:30 and are ready for our return trip home. Four hours later we are still not there and
are really exhausted at this point.
Finally, we arrive and are picked up by a minibus to be driven to our
hotels. We get back to the guest house
and climb up the stairs to shower and hopefully get some dinner before calling
it a day. We have a dinner of Indian
food and return home to an early night.
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