Southeast Asia Day 2

Today was Mekong Delta Day and also when we met our buddies. We had breakfast at the hotel and then got on the bus to head out to Mekong Delta.

On the way there, we stopped at a pagoda called Buu Lam Temple. Arnav’s buddy Koi told him that it was a tourist trap but we still liked it. It was a gorgeous place and our buddy, Nhu, who is Buddhist told us a little bit about the Buddhist religion.

After that we got back on the bus to head to the boat station at Mekong Delta. We got on the boat and went to the first island we visited, Unicorn Island.

We spent a lot of time at Unicorn Island. The first thing we did was try honey tea made by local bees. The locals also gave us dried bananas and ginger to try as well as some peanut candy that was very good. After that, I got to hold a huge anaconda. The woman told us that the snake was a boy but didn’t have a name. I loved holding the giant snake!

Next we took a horse carriage to a different part of the island. I am scared of horses but this horse was very tiny so it was okay. At the next part of the island we got to drink coconut water. It was made with milk from water coconut (a different type of coconut than many of us are used to) and had meat in it as well.

We drank this as we walked to the next item on our agenda, which was eating local fruit while listening to locals sing traditional songs. There were lots of delicious fruits, including dragon fruit which is my favorite! We also had longan fruit (pictured below) which was similar to a lychee. I had never seen it before so it was fun to try something new!

After this we took a ride in a little gondola-type boat to the next location on the island. It was gorgeous and serene and we even saw walking fish!

Finally, the last thing we did at Unicorn Island was see how coconut candy is made. As we arrived, multiple women and their sons wanted to take pictures with us. I got some pictures too so they’re below. Then we saw the coconut candy being made and got to try some. It was very chewy!

Next we got back on the boat and headed to the next island, Dragon Island. At Dragon Island we caught fish in a dam. We had to put on strange scrubs that none of us looked great in and get into very dirty water to catch fish in baskets. It was super tough but we caught 6 fish which was a record for the trip! It was fun but very tiring and afterwards we were all ready for lunch.

When we were done catching fish, we got on the boat to go home. They had coconuts on the boat for us to drink, however I found mine to be quite sour so I didn’t drink much.

Then we headed for lunch. At lunch, we got to eat 8 fish although we’d only caught 6. As it turns out, they had put 8 fish into the dam for us to catch and apparently we were always entitled to all 8 no matter how many we caught. Lunch was the same style as all the other meals had been, and my favorite dish was the fish we’d caught with fish sauce. We didn’t have lunch until 4 pm, so after this we got on the bus for the 2 hour ride back to the hotel. On the bus ride, our tour guide for the past two days, Long, told us that he would not see us again on this trip. He gave a whole heartfelt speech and genuinely looked like he was about to cry. I thought this was so sweet because we had all only met two days ago. He was wonderful and the professors must have thought so too because Monticha asked him if they’d be their tour guide again next year.

Once we arrived at the hotel, we went across the street to the Family Mart to check out what snacks they had at their grocery store. I got some fun snacks although it was tough to make a selection.

After I acquired some snacks, we went back to the hotel and up to the pool and rooftop bar. We had some drinks and just hung out, it was nice to relax after a long day.

After the pool, a few of us decided to go bop around the city for a bit. We went to an outdoor market, a bubble tea shop, but most importantly the Circle K. The Circle K had even more fun snacks and a HUGE spider that I could not believe was real.

Finally, we went back to the hotel and went to bed. It was a really fun day and I loved getting to hang out with my buddy all day!