Tour of the Mekong Delta

Alisia and I arrived a day earlier than the rest of the group because we booked our tickets separately. While we waited for the Brittany's Hope group to arrive we decided to take a tour of the Mekong Delta. Unfortunately, my tour ended about 15 minutes into the car ride when I, yet again, got sick. Thankfully, our traveling partner, Georgia, agreed to keep Alisia for the tour. So Alisia is going to tell you about her exciting tour today. 

Alisia: We went on our tour with a super nice tour guide named Loc and had a lot of fun. Our drive to the first stop we were touring was about an hour. I had nothing to do, so I started looking at the streets that were filled with motor cycles. That wasn't the weird part though, the weird part was the things ON the motor cycles. Huge sacks of wheat, rice, and other things, boxes, fruits, jugs of water and juice, soda crates, long metal rods, wood slabs, and BABIES! 

After the car ride, we arrived at a beautiful temple with lots of statues, including Buddha. 

After that we drove a little bit more and boarded a small boat. It was just Georgia, Loc and I, and the driver in the boat. There were four islands and we sailed to the first one. The scenery was really pretty. There were trees and bushes and it was so cool! When we got there, the island was FILLED with fruits. There were pineapples

Dragon fruit

And a lot of other stuff. We sat down at a table and tried different kinds of fruit and we dipped the sour ones in two kinds of salt. I dipped pineapple in chili salt and it made it really spicy. It was SOOO good!  My favorite fruit was the orange one (see below) but I can't remember what it's called. It tasted like peaches but way sweeter. To go with our fruit, we drank some jasmine tea. While we were eating a group of people were singing and playing strange instruments. It was really cool!

We also saw bees and I tasted jasmine tea mixed with honey, like, and bee pollen. We also tried honey candy and I bought some. 

On our way to the next island we saw a bunch of fish farms which are houses with fish living under them so they can catch and eat the fish whenever they want. 

I also got a chance to drive the boat!

Next we went to an island where it was all coconuts. They made coconut candy there. They took the inside of the meat and mixed it up into a paste and flavored it and wrapped it up in rice paper so you could eat it. Also at this island we saw how rice paper was made. 

We also saw "snake water". People drink this for health because it's nutritious. Yuck!!

Then we rode a horse drawn cart to a hut where they had a snake that I got to hold. 

Then we got on a rowboat and rowed down the canal, wearing Vietnamese hats. It was really fun!

At the end of the canal we got back on our original boat and went to the third island. There were more coconuts here but it was a smaller, quieter island with only two families living on the island. There we got to climb up a ladder to drink and eat the meat out of. 

After that we got back on the boat and headed back to the dock and out to lunch. 

I took a nap on the way back to the hotel. We met up with the rest of the Brittany's Hope team for dinner and now we are heading to bed. The festival outside is keeping us awake but I'm tired so I am going to sleep anyway!  Good night!

Shannon: Alisia handed me the phone to add the pictures and was asleep within two minutes!! It was a long day for her!! I'm hoping I get to join in the fun tomorrow. We are going to a center for the blind. I would hate to miss another day!!