Mekong Delta & the Home stay

Mekong Delta & the Home stay

In between the Vietnam War places we went to visit, there was a stop at a home stay in the Mekong Delta, this basically means, we spent the day on a boat exploring the Mekong Delta and Vietnam, and then stay at some one's home overnight.

We came across some floating markets, and saw scenery of farms and people working along the river. I got beatufifull pictures of the river side and the jungle falling into the river. We stopped off to learn about some different foods. We learned how coconut candy was made, how to make rice puffs, we were able to try rice wine (whoa, potent) and rice pancakes. It was a lot of fun, and tasty. We had some jasmine tea as we enjoyed the sweets that were made at the stop.

Lunch was another journey down the river, through the jungle. We had our first attempt at making our first spring rolls. (many many more times to come in the next 10 days) A fish, with scales, we had to descale, propped up and looking at me... We had to take the rice paper, dip it in water, add in some greenery, and part of a cucumber, and then put meat on top from our fish friend in the center off the table. Slightly uncomfortable, but kewl.

Then back to the big boat, and off to our next "stop" which was old fashion Vietnamese boats, with a person standing in the back paddling us forward, this was just for experience as we met the big boat short while later. Some great touristy shots were taken here, Each of us sitting in a 3 person boat, with our rower, all wearing rice paddy hats (the pointed triangular hats, that are great at blocking sun) and drinking out of a coconut.

Eventually, We got to a certain dirt path, took our overnight bag, and walked on. This was where we were to stay over night... about a 4 min walk from the river shore, to a beautiful home with a guest house with rooms, it was not, by far, a camping experience, which I thought/was worried it might have been.

We had shots of snake whiskey and then some more jasmine tea, got our room keys, and then held a python snake. You know, just a typical day in the jungle. The python was massive! Probably close to 7 or 8 feet long. eeek! I was worried whether or not it knew i just drank some of it friends in whiskey... and if it knew that for dinner, the host family was serving us more of its friends and family.......

That's right, for dinner, along with pork and chicken and fish, we were able to enjoy some snake and rat! It was an interesting snake curry, but the curry was a little to spicy for me... and the snake skin was really chewy. The rat was prepared in marinade, and was tasty.

The whole afternoon and evening was very crusiey and chilled out. We played cards, drank beers and punch, talked and played group games. It was a good way to bond with the new people on the tour.

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