May 22

 Our first morning in Ho Chi Minh City began with continental breakfast in our hotel. It had an amazing omelet station, along with fresh fruit, Vietnamese cuisine, and a variety of fresh juices. After eating, we met in the lobby of our hotel and departed for the Mekong River Delta at 8am. Thankfully, we did not hit the infamous traffic that Ho Chi Minh City is known for. It took us about 2 hours to get to our destination, which isn’t bad for 37 miles. On the ride, Tony gave us a variety of information about the Mekong River. The Mekong River is the 7^th largest river in Asia, and the 12^th largest in the world. Its delta comprises 13% of Vietnam and produces 25% of the GDP for the country. Vietnam exports around 9 million tons of rice a year through this delta. They are able to produce this quantity because they do not have a winter season and therefore can produce 3 different crops a year.

Upon our arrival at the Mekong River, we boarded a large river boat. We met our tour guide, Oanh, and she educated us about the local area. There are four main islands, each named after a sacred animal: Dragon, Turtle, Unicorn, and Phoenix. The Mekong River is also nicknamed the Dragon River because it looks like a dragon from above and has 9 outlets. The cargo boats are often found with two eyes painted on the front to bring them luck fishing while also scaring evil spirits and monsters away.

Our first stop was at Unicorn Island. We got out of the boat and saw a lady holding honeycomb with bees all over it. This was part of a multi-generational honey farm. The bees pollinate the longan flower as well as many fruits and plants on this island. The bee pollen from the longan flower is known for its ability to aid in digestion and helps the liver as well. There is another substance used from the bees called Royal Jelly. This is made by the queen bee and helps with renewing energy. It can be used as a topical ointment or for consumption (often paired with tea). We were served jasmine tea that had honey and kumquat juice in it, which was a hit for the group. Along with that, we were served delicious dried bananas as well as dried ginger.

We then moved on to learn about rice wine. They make their wine similar to how we make moonshine. The percentage of alcohol varied as the production went on. It begins at a high concentration, then balances out to around 50% alcohol. The group was passed shot glasses and were offered to try it. The smell was potent, and the group was rather nervous to taste it, but took it like champs. As suspected, it tasted like warm rubbing alcohol. Shortly after tasting the rice wine, our tour guide brought us by a python. While most of us were brave enough to put the python around our necks, others, like Dr. Daly and Karen, were quivering with fear in the presence of such a beast.

Then we went back on the boat and went to a different part of the island. We sat down at small tables with plates of fruit in front of us. We were able to try fresh pineapple, dragon fruit, mango, jack fruit, and sapodilla. The sapodilla was a new fruit for us, and was not favored among our group. It had a flavor similar to sweet potatoes and was quite grainy. While sampling the fruits, a group of performers came and presented their traditional Vietnamese folk music. Some sang, while others played specialty instruments. The last stop at Unicorn Island was a tilapia farm. The large area of netted water was packed with fish that were about 1 month old.  The fish are grouped together at first, then are split and given more room as they grow but still staying in groups weighing 1 ton. The fish are raised for 5-6 months until each fish weighs 1 kilogram, then they are taken to the market.

Our next stop was Turtle Island, which is famous for their water coconuts. We got into groups of 4 onto large canoe-like boats called sampans. At the back of each boat was a captain who paddled our boats. We slowly made our way from the river delta down a smaller channel to a village. Since it was high tide, we were able to take the river to the town, as opposed to only taking the river part way. The river was canopied by water palm trees. Some students were extremely worried about alligators, but we escaped unscathed. The boat ride took about 20 minutes and was a serene, beautiful experience. After reaching our destination, we learned about how chocolate was made with the cacao beans they raised and harvested. The chocolate tasted different than the chocolate we are used to, as it had fewer ingredients and was more concentrated. Many students enjoyed the samples of various types of chocolates. We then loaded into tuktuks, which are small, motorbike powered mini trucks that could hold about 8 people each. We rode down multiple pathways to get to a place where they process coconuts. We learned about the various ways all the coconut byproducts are used. We tasted different coconut candies, and some were feeling brave and tried some snake wine. The snake wine was a large container of wine with 1 or more large snakes inside it. We then walked back to the boat and went to Phoenix Island.

For lunch, our centerpiece was a large, cooked elephant ear fish. A waiter brought other ingredients and made everyone their own rice paper wraps filled with rice noodles, cucumber, lettuce, fish, and pineapple. We also were served many other sides, such as fresh prawns and an inflated, balloon-like ball of sticky rice. After dinner, we were shown how to make the sticky rice ball, which was a very cool experience. We all gathered back onto the bus at the end of our island-hopping adventure.

Tony decided to take us to a last-minute stop to see a bamboo factory. The information was given by an enthusiastic girl, who gave us a detailed, infomercial about all the products available. One of the perks of using bamboo underwear is “7 days, no smell”, according to our presenter. Many people bought a variety of products from the store, including hair tie-ups, hand towels, and shirts. We then hopped onto the bus for our trek back to Ho Chi Minh City. After we arrived we had time at the hotel to get ready for a wonderful dinner at one of many great restaurants in the city.

Two days of our trip consisted of wearing what we called “farm shoes”: older shoes that we would leave in Vietnam due to the possibility of bringing foreign animal diseases back to the US.  We donated many of our pairs to our tour guide, Tony, who will find good homes for these still-pretty-good shoes.