Not Busy, Just Thai'd Up

Lemme give you a lil sumfin sumfin about my next day trip, this time to the Mekong Delta.  I didn’t have enough time to go for more than one day, but there are longer trips available if you wish to book a tour.  I’d say a few days at the Mekong Delta would be worth the trip because I had an excellent day there. 

SO! I woke up and hopped on a bus.  Tom was my tour guide again!  We made a stop at some Buddhist Pagoda with very large Buddha statues done in different styles nearby.  The pagoda and the statues are very new, and magnificent.  I was marveling at how beautiful the mosaic work at the front gate was.  Oh, I feel it is necessary to mention that Mahayana Buddhism is more prevalent in Vietnam, in stark contrast to the prevalence of Theravada Buddhism in Thailand.  I’d explain the differences between them, but I am still no expert in Buddhism, and what I do know would take too long to explain. Do some research- it’ll be good for you.

 

The most intriguing thing inside of the temple was the fact that they worship the Lady Buddha, to whom barren women pray so that they may bear children.  Fertility gods are so interesting.  I also learned that when people pray in front of these statues, they always hold an odd number of incense sticks in front of them, or offer those sticks to the statues.  The numbers 3, 5, and 7 are the typical numbers.

So that was a fun break from the bus. But then, we rolled on! To the boat station!

We hopped into a motor boat to enjoy a slow cruise amongst the islands. There are four islands in the Mekong Delta- Tortoise Island, Phoenix Island, Unicorn Island, and Dragon Island.  I only got to see Tortoise Island, where we ate lunch (but those who do the longer day-trips get to see the others).  Free rice and pork and vegetable was provided, but you had the option to buy additional food.  My friends who are teaching English in Japan bought the elephant ear fish to put inside of spring rolls- it was wild!

We left the island, hopped in the boat again, and went to the coconut candy factory! It’s a family-owned business, I think, and calling it a factory seems way too grandiose a description since it’s basically a bunch of machinery underneath a hut.  BUT IT’S AWESOME! These people use every part of the coconut in their candy-making process.  First, they shred the coconut and press the powdered coconut to release the oil and cream. Then, the powder is used to feed the geese and fertilize the ground, the oils are used for beauty purposes (whitening, moisturizing, etc.), the cream is for the candy, and the shells are used to feed the fire in order to make the molten candy.

They test to see if the mixture is ready by seeing if a drop of candy does not dissolve into a bowl of water.  Then, they cut up the molten candy into strips, then into smaller pieces.  The people then hand-wrap the candies inside of edible rice paper wrappers, and then paper wrappers.  I found this absolutely fascinating and cool.  Also, the candies come in different flavors- regular coconut, chocolate, panda leaf, durian (popular fruit disliked by many people in the West), and peanut. I bought all of them and they are so yummy.

They served us some of the most delicious honey tea I’ve ever tasted, and then let us all take turns taking pictures with a python around our necks.  The python kept getting passed around every fifteen seconds- I felt so bad for the poor thing, but this did not keep me from getting my snake picture.

Next, we got into these lil rowboats where we were slowly paddled through the river, lined with lovely greenery.  It was kinda romantic. The best part though, was that we got to wear rice patty hats.

After reaching our new destination, we got to eat some fresh fruit snacks, and were entertained with some traditional folk Vietnamese music. It was absolutely awesome- and the songs have stories, as folk songs are wont to do.  The bus driver even got up and sang!  They provided CDs for us to buy- #tourist trap- but I bought one because the Music of the Silk Road class that I took last year has made me obsessed with foreign music.

That was the end of my trip to the Mekong Delta- we just hopped back on a boat and then a bus to get back.  Something cool about the boats: there are two types of boats- tourist boats and fishing boats.  They paint eyes on the front of the tourist boats to scare the fish away, and keep the fishing boats eyeless because scaring the fish away would be detrimental to the fisherman’s purpose. 

Later that night, I sat in the park to journal, as became my nightly routine in Ho Chi Minh City.  I was all alone until a possibly homeless man randomly sat beside me to ask if I speak Vietnamese and question my ethnicity.  I tried to make conversation, but the language barrier made everything awkward.  He left after a good 2 minutes of awkward silence.  I don’t know why I felt the need to share that bit of info. 

Anyway, the following day was to be a day of travel.  I was leaving Ho Chi Minh City for Hanoi.  But due to a delay in flight, I had the entire morning to explore the city a little more.  ABC Bakery, along Pham Ngu Lao street. Holy crap.  It was amazing.  So many pastries, some even have cheese.  And everything is 15,000 dong each.  I was in heaven, and I was upset that I had not thought to explore the bakery earlier in the week.

 

Then, I walked to the Fine Arts Museum, which is housed inside of an old French building.  The building itself was really beautiful, but the arts inside were simply amazing.  Much of the art was created within the past century, which I found very interesting.  There was even an entire floor dedicated to arts related to the Vietnam War and its effects, which was a bit depressing.  I’ll let some of my favorite art pieces speak for the museum.

Afterward, the owners of the hostel took me to the bus station so that I could catch the bus to the airport.  I must warn you travelers- the Saigon airport has separate terminals for international flights and domestic flights.  Just be aware about which one you are in. 

In the next episode of this blog, Jessica takes on Hanoi. *dramatic closing theme music*