Life in the Mekong Delta

Looking out over the Mekong Delta while having breakfast is absolutely amazing. It was lovely to sit and enjoy our meal without being eaten alive by mosquitoes. Today, we sailed out to a floating market where we bought "sugar bread." An elderly lady paddled up alongside us, so we could trade over the railing. The sugar bread cost 2,000 dong for four pieces. After that, we headed to a larger floating market, where the vendors raised a piece of what they wanted to sell or buy on a mast. We also took a trip into the smaller tributaries of the Mekong Delta. The Vietnamese have dug hundreds of kilometers of these tributaries themselves to bring water further inland and closer to their fields. Along the way, we passed a rice and noodle factory, where we got to see how the production process works. Afterward, we had a long ride back to the mainland for lunch. We got to order whatever we wanted from the menu. If the total exceeded 10,000 dong, we had to pay the difference ourselves. Honny chose Fresh Spring Rolls, which he had become quite fond of, while I opted for fried spring rolls. There was a difference of 16,000 dong that we had to cover ourselves, which is about 8 kroner – so it was pretty cheap. After lunch, the group split up, with some continuing for an extra day up the Mekong River while the rest of us headed back to Ho Chi Minh City. We had only paid for two days, which we felt was plenty. It can get a bit tiring sailing around for too long, so we were glad we hadn’t booked an extra day. Only the Dutch took the extra day, so we were happy to avoid their company. A whole family can take up a lot of space in a group. After lunch, we went on one last boat trip without a guide, who stayed with the part of the group that had booked the extra day. Before we made it back to the bus for our four-hour ride, we stopped at a tofu paper factory for a tour. Unfortunately, we didn’t get much out of the tour since no one spoke English. When we arrived at the pickup spot, the bus hadn’t come yet, so we just goofed around with the locals. A couple of Vietnamese girls were totally smitten with Honny. An elderly lady kept wanting to sniff my skin and touch it, which made me feel really embarrassed. Back in HCMC, we returned to our old hotel, where we decided to stay again since the family had taken good care of our luggage. We had arranged to meet up with the French guy and the guy from Costa Rica in the evening. First, we had a late dinner at a local restaurant, and then we hit some bars. There, we met a girl who claimed to be an actress on a well-known BBC show called "Scandals." Later, we went to a nightclub, but there were some police officers standing guard outside due to threats, which really dampened the mood. We didn’t feel like sticking around, so instead, we tried to find a karaoke bar – but had no luck. In the end, the three of us hopped on a taxi-motorbike back to our neighborhood. There, we found a small restaurant that was open late, where we ordered a pizza and struck up a conversation with the owner.