Day 15- The Mekong Provinces

I came, I saw, I conquered the Mekong Delta. A tropical wetland made up of 8 or so provinces just to the south of Saigon, the Mekong has dense jungle and many small tributaries that feed into a few large rivers… it is extremely hot and humid. I had heard that this was a great place to go if you wanted to see the real and raw of south Vietnam and it didn’t disappoint. The jungle is gorgeous and the people in the region are very transparently poor. They’re primarily craftsmen and traders and don’t have much, sometimes it’s a stretch to say they have a boat which for many is their life blood. But they do have a ton of charisma.

A group of us ended up booking a tour with a company out of Saigon and departed on an unknown excursion early Saturday morning. In total we ended up traveling 4 or so hours on the road on Saturday with many stops here and there… A brick making factory (a big industry in the region), a water taxi to a floating village, a canoe ride along one of the fingers of the Tieng River, a ride through the thick south Vietnam jungle, and countless street markets. It was a very full but very rewarding 2 days…

The Mekong Delta group

Our canoe ride down one of the tributaries was picturesque

The floating village had almost no rhyme or reason to it but so did alot of
things in this river lifestyle.

There weren't too many takers on our lunch in the Delta one day. Gotta atleast try it though...

But by the time we made it back to the Peace House last night we were all beat. Seems to be a theme recently , but I would be disappointed in myself if I wasn’t on this trip. Andrew, Matt and I woke up at 6 AM to watch the Super Bowl but alas our router went down (nothing here has a very reliable appeal) so much to my disappointment we had to wait until it was long over to learn that the Giants bested the Patriots again. Today is the first day of teaching and its going to be a whirlwind but I’m excited. I have to come up with the days lesson plan so I have to go…

Tam biet