On day 4 Dain, Becca, Kylin and I were all on the same SAS trip to the
Mekong Delta. We left right after breakfast and it took us about an hour
to get to our first destination. Our first stop was at a market-type
place that was probably as far from tourism as you could possibly get.
Realistically, I think our tour guide only stopped here because we
needed to pick stuff up (as he left with 3 purchases) but I still
enjoyed being taken up and down the streets of vendors selling literally
everything. At this market you could buy anything from fruits and
veggies to porcelain cups to dog food to notebooks and pencils to an
animal that you can pick out and have it be killed right in front of you
(perfect for the girl who would give anything to not be allergic to
everything and therefore forced against her will to eat meat, right?). Whoa.
After the market we got back on the bus and traveled a bit further to
the delta. Once we got there we got into little boats to travel down the
stream before eventually stopping for lunch. Lunch was absolutely
FANTASTIC. I asked our tour guide about stuff containing wheat, and his
exact words were "we don't have wheat" and god was he right. It was a
meal served family style and there wasn't a single plate I couldn't
touch (though I choose not to touch the whole fish in front of us just
waiting to be cut up). I ended up eating spring rolls that we made
ourselves with rice paper, noodles, rice with steamed veggies, shrimp,
whatever noddle soup they gave us was, and a bunch more. I was so full
after but it was definitely the best meal I have had in port thus far.
YUM. It felt so wonderful to eat the same things as everyone around me.
After lunch we went on a bike ride and I, of course, was given the bike
with the flat tire. Naturally, with one flat tire, my bike didn't go too
fast and I ended up in the back and constantly scratching the ground.
Because the leader had no clear intention of making sure everyone was
following him, I ended up catching the group already on their way back.
When he noticed my bike, he starts cracking up laughing and starts
pointing to the other people asking what happened to me. Being the
stubborn, often bitchy-if-bitched-to self that I am, I took it upon
myself to ride my broken bike even slower and swerve in as many
directions as possible so our "guide" couldn't get in front of us for
the entire time. Alisa win.
After our ride we went back to the little boats and took another ride
through the river and to a coconut candy factory. The factory wasn't
really a "factory" but a bunch of people at a line with various,
rudimentary tools, melting, molding, mixing, stretching, packaging and
more. We got to taste the candy which I would imagine would have been
really good for anyone who didn't loathe the taste of coconut and a
bunch of people on my trip bought some. On the way out of the factory a
few people on the trip stopped and bought some typical Vietnamese hats
that we had seen around. Made of straw and looking fairly identical to
those in China, they are triangle shaped and kind of fantastic. Once the
first few got them, we all simply needed them. So, of course, we all got
one and now they currently sit in our cabins too awkward to fit
anywhere, but oh well, it was worth it at the time. Next, we got on some
horses and were taken to a place to meet our boats. We took the small
boats down the stream to even bigger boats that would be taking us back
to our bus.
We got back to the ship around 4pm, took quick showers, and headed out
to pick up our dresses. We tried them on and when we realized they were
perfect, got to get them wrapped up and take them with us. LOVE.
Dresses in hand, we walked to Dain's place so he could pick up his suit.
He hadn't had a fitting yet, so they told him that if anything didn't
fit the way he wanted it they could fix it then and it would take an
hour or so. But, both fit wonderfully and it wasn't an issue at all. He
picked out a few ties and we were a go-go. Starving, we decided to find
somewhere to eat dinner and found another Pho themed chain (it's not
really hard to find in Ho Chi Minh City) and indulged. SO GOOD.
After feeding the pho-monster inside of me, we found a coffee shop to
scope up some wifi for a bit. An hour later, we headed to the DVD store
and bought stacks of DVDs for 50cents each. Wooooo. We came back to the
ship to drop our stuff off and go back out, but once we heard some
stories (entry coming later regarding this), we decided it was better to
stay in and just watched Despicable Me on the ship TVs.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
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