Day 50

Mekong Delta

We got up for breakfast at 7 because we had signed up for the boat tour this morning. Breakfast was simple but beautiful: a soft baguette with a tomato and onion omelette with little bits of cucumber cut into heart shapes. Sitting right on the riverside but now in the daytime was really nice as we could actually see out across the river. We hopped on our boat and headed out. Moving at a slow pace it let us really take in the quaint scenery - well except for the loud as hell engine that I sat right infront of.

Stop number one was actually a stop to a different set of boats. We hopped on the classic sampan boat (small wooden paddle propelled raft that are used alot on the Mekong) and each given a reed conical hat to wear. They miscalculated the numbers so I ended up sitting on the very front of our boat. Feeling like an Instagram influencer, we floated down a small offshoot and passed lots of floating plants until we got to a bamboo bridge and then we headed back the way we came.

We hopped back on our engine powered boat (not that the other ones had anything wrong with them but may have been a bit slow for the whole tour) and unknowingly headed towards some factories. This might sound like an odd stop, which at first I thought so too but it was actually quite interested. We got to see how they made different things like rice wine (which I had a sip of at maybe 10am and was POTENT especially for the time of day, so unlike Daisy, I decided not to finish my shot. They also had different falvoured ones aswell as a jug FILLED WITH SNAKES? I have no idea what it was but I wasn't touching that. Next we saw how rice was popped like popcorn to make something very close to rice crispies, then they were put into blocks and sometimes flavoured to make quite a nice snack - probably what that Thai farmer offered us when we were in North Thailand. After we saw how coconut flesh was crushed down and heated to make these little candies. They had loads of different candies to try and I ended up buying a small bag of banana candy. Finally, outside the shop they had a (unfortunately probably heavily sedated) snake chilling in a cage where you could pick it up or stroke it. It took me long enough to be bold enough to touch it let alone pick it up and it felt weird but also quite nice.

After we were heading to a "local floating market" and I don't know about you but in my opinion a floating market had to be... well... floating? This was just a local market for fresh (or maybe not so fresh) produce and meat. It was cool to see but to be honest I didn't really want any half alive fish or chicken that was sitting out in the open. After, we headed to a fish farm which was mostly just some water and the occasional dead fish before heading back to our homestay.

Back at our place, some people brought over a couple new dogs who were somehow smaller than the other dog I met yesterday. These must have been weeks old as they were so so tiny and kind of still learning to walk properly. After spending arguably too much time cuddling the little dudes (also arguably not enough time), I tracked down my swim shorts from our washing load and went for a dip in the pool. I ended up playing catch with a couple German dudes who were pretty chill. I had some grilled chicken and rice for lunch before chilling for a little while, admiring the waves rock the plants.

As you may know I'm not a big chiller so decided to see if I could go for a swim in the Mekong itself. It was a bit brown which put Alfie and Daisy off but I took the initiative and went by myself before meeting a Dutch girl who had been travelling for about 6 months and was going around painting her travels which I thought was awesome. Loads of little sketchpad that she had to keep posting back home. She ended up jumping in the water with me, as well as an English dude who had just arrived. The 3 of us swam in the river (carefully not to get hit by a boat) as the sun set. One of the German dudes had a drone and got some quite cool videos that I'll try and upload.

After a while, the orange sun had fully set (this time not even disappearing under the classic Asian haze) and I went and found Alfie and Daisy in the pool. After informing them they had missed the sunset, we ended up playing a botched game of volleyball where strategy went out the window and it was more of a mad dive for the ball before it hit the water. We had dinner then planned our onward travel whilst playing uno. Alfie and Daisy were tired so they went to bed and I aimed to follow right behind them but ended up getting sucked into a pool game with 3 Germans, an English, and a Vietnamese dude who we referred to as 'boss man' as he lived here and also didn't speak a word of English.

What followed were a few of the most intense games of German rules 3 verses 3 pool I had ever played. A mix of insane shots as well as massive whifs made for a tense set of games. I had gotten a few lucky shots right at the start which gave everyone a false impression I was a wildcard player. Boss man decided to bring out some rice wine aswell which I didn't want but you can't say no to a shot that had already been poured for you. Luckily this one was more tame than the one this morning. It was also no longer morning which helped a damn lot. Boss man went to bed and we wrapped up after another couples games before I tried to sneak into our room without waking anyone. This failed immensely but I got showered and headed to bed.Read more