Mỹ Tho

We spent our last day in Vietnam on a tour of the Mekong Delta. It was a two hour bus ride away from Saigon. We took a motor boat out into the delta - which took us to three different islands. The brown water — no, not pollution. It’s been turned this color since 2020 when China damned one of the incoming rivers to the delta. It effected them very badly here. 😢

We stopped first on Unicorn island - which to them means “Happy island”. We took a 4 person canoe ride down a mangrove which was beautiful, got off and held a 10kg Python! They also raise bees on this island so we’re given a chance to hold part of the active hive - but with my allergy decided to stay my distance. Our guide told a story of him getting stung 51 times!! He said he killed one, and the rest attacked him. He was VERY leery to be close at all. I wondered what would have happened to us all had someone dropped the honeycomb. 😬 They gave us a honey tea and a special banana snack - both delicious.

Then we went to “Coconut Island”. Little trivia - there was a cult formed here in the 1960’s called … the coconut religion. Yes .. they worshipped the coconut. (It’s disbanded now) Now, honestly I actually get it, kind of. 😂 The coconut is AMAZING. They do SO much with it here. Water, Milk, oil, shred it, bake it, lotion, husk for fuel, bowls from the shells and more .. and we discovered on this island an amazing treat - coconut candy. Made right there in front of us. Dear lord is it good! It’s the texture of bit-o-honey but so much better. We bought way too much of it to be proud of, but dang, so good. We also had a shot of “Snake swine” - fermented cobra and lizards. 😧 I found it really nasty. Really burned going down. Can’t believe I tried it, but when in Rome …

Then we headed to our last island. Didn’t get the name. We had a fantastic Vietnamese lunch - check out the fish that was brought to the table! A cook came over and made us spring rolls out of it right at our table. Then we lounged in hammocks for about an hour under a fan while others rode bikes around the island. Tremendous. ❤️

On our way back to Saigon, they stopped at the Vinh Trang Buddha and pagoda. Jordan calls it a “Bug-oda”. It was nice to see a laughing Buddha as well as a reclining one.

Finished our day out back at seafood street. We bbq’d meat and shrimp right at our table - was fantastic. So much flavor. They also had what was called “Lime Ice” - basically a limeade, but again, better than I’ve ever had. I’ll definitely miss Vietnamese food! One of my favorite countries to eat in.

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