a southern yankee abroad

After crossing the border at Phnom Den in Cambodia into Vietnam yesterday, we stopped for lunch in Chau Doc and then continued on to the Mekong Delta. The Mekong Delta was one of the places I was most looking forward to on this trip. Last night, our group spent the night at a “home stay” in a typical Vietnamese home outside of Can Tho.

We had a home cooked meal of Vietnamese pancakes, pumpkin soup, tofu, clay pot pork, green beans, rice, and the best spring rolls I’ve ever had. It was delicious! Later in the evening, we all settled into our beds complete with mosquito nets. It was actually very comfortable. I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of very hard rain, amplified by the tin roof. I don’t remember hearing rain that hard in a really, really long time. It really was raining so much that I thought it was going to flood! Some water came through the cracks onto me and my bed, so I made sure to cover up my phone and computer with a blanket. Despite thinking we would get washed away, I woke up in the morning with the house still intact.

Early the next morning, we went to the floating market on the Mekong River. The floating market is comprised of vendors on their boats in the middle of the river, with customers weaving through on their own boats and then hitching to whichever boat they want to shop from. The boat shops display what they are selling on tall bamboo canes on their boats (like a flagpole). The first boat to approach sold Vietnamese coffee, and it did not disappoint! We then hitched to a pineapple boat, where a lady cut and sold fresh pineapple. I learned the vendors live on their boats 24/7 until it’s time to go back to the farm to work and restock, after which they return to sell on the boats. Most locals visit the markets a few times a month to shop for food. It was a really unique place. 

After the market in Can Tho, we drove about 4 hours to Ho Chi Minh City (otherwise known as Saigon). I am slightly anxious about this visit, as I know a lot of what I will be seeing relates to the U.S.-Vietnam War. I know there are two sides to every story, so I am interested in learning about the war in this context and from the Vietnamese perspective. So…we will see how Saigon goes!