Mekong Delta
After our alarms sounded throughout the hotel telling Vietnam Orange to get up and go, it was full steam ahead. A delicious breakfast was provided from the hotel buffet giving us energy to fit our last minute items into a small backpack for our trip to the Mekong Delta. After some shopping we all filed onto the bus for a 3 hour trip.
Our tour guide, Suny, informed us about the village we were going to and some of her personal experiences. Suny grew up in the Mekong Delta so it was nice to have some local knowledge. As we pulled up to the ‘Happy House’ (toilet), we were glad to have a chance to stretch our legs and as some of us sipped coconut juice, others enjoyed a small game of soccer until the ball fell into the pond. To pass the time, many of us joined in on some card games, such as cheat, go fish and uno. Seeing as the night before, some people decided to rig the playing cards which was very frustrating when we were playing cheat and 6 queens were put down.
Upon arrival at the boat to take us along the river, we met our Mekong Delta guide, Han. He took us to a small island where we had some lunch. The lunch consisted of a small soup, spring rolls, rice and chicken. Suny tried to trick some of us (Bailey) into believing that the chicken was actually dog. Han also tried to tell us that the chicken was elephant. Tourists can be very easily fooled by locals. We got back into the boat and travelled to the village where we will be completing the building project. We checked out the site and met the family we were building the house for. The Deo family were very grateful and humble for our contribution.
We took the boat back to our homestay hostel. After checking in and putting our bags away, we were lucky enough to take part in a bike ride around the village. Some people were thrilled about the bike ride, others not so much. We received a lot of greetings from the local children and some adults as we rode around. They were very energetic and excited to see many new faces. Whilst most of the ride was enjoyable, we found out very quickly that we were riding on a 2 way track about 1 metre wide. Sharing this path with motorbikes was a challenge but the locals were able to navigate around us with ease.
We are really enjoying our trip so far and even though this day is the first quarter mark we can’t wait for the next 3!
Missing you all back home, love you all (this also includes the sometimes annoying siblings).
Lots of love,
Immy and Jessi
P.S. As we are in a remote village for the next few nights our blog may not be updated regularly.