March 9, 2023

Last night we ended the evening at the bar down the street from our hostel where the beers were only 13,000 vnd. So while we intended not to drink copious amounts, 50 cent beers walking distance from the hostel convince you to have a couple. But it was fun and I chatted and hung out with some new friends from the hostel, Micah a man from germany and Hayden a kiwi from new zealand. I was convinced to book a trip to the Mekong Delta for today and it was so neat.

I am still getting accostumed to the time change so I was up at 5 AM which is not at ideal when you have to be awake for a day of activities at 7:30. But we made it work and I ended up getting the tastiest coconut milk coffee and a floss crossoint. I knew what neither of those words meant but 10/10 both were lovely. After getting these I met the group downstairs to hop on the bus to the Mekong Delta. We had about a 1.5 hour bus ride to get there before we hopped on a larger boat to head to the islands. The first island was the coconut candy island. Here, we learned about the process of making a vietnamese staple, coconut candy. We watched them open the coconut, tried the fresh water and then sampled the candy. Then we were convinced to try the snake wine. Where they ferment snakes and scorpions in this liquid. To me, it felt like an easier drink than taking a tequila shot so I’d give it a go again.

We left coconut candy island and got on smaller boat to head to the island where we would eat lunch. We were served spring rolls, soup, fried spring rolls, and some kind of chicken. All the food in Vietnam has been so incredible. They also took us on a smaller boat and gave us the traditional vietnamese hats for us to cruise through the delta. It was so gorgeous and could not reccomend it more to humans. We got to take bikes around Mekong and it was nothing I thought I would be doing but it was so cool to fully immerse myself in the local area and learn their experiences and cultures.

We also got to see where they make honey with the bees and were treated to the locals singing and playing their insturments. It was overall a really great tour and the humasn on it were all so great. Hayden the Kiwi has convinced everyone to come and go out for a little bar crawl the evening so a short blog now before I take a nap. I will add more photos when they all upload to my computer but here is a few to get y’all through. Tomorrow I head to Bali at 4 AM. I cannot wait.