Rolling on the river

Most of my family has arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, so there are people for me to hang out and talk with during the weekend! Today we embarked on an organized tour of the Mekong Delta - a part of Vietnam apparently known for fertile land, coconuts and high-grade sand.

I've been on many of these kinds of tours where you're loaded onto a bus, the tour guide tells you about local history and points out sights, you stop at a bunch of stations where people sell "artisan" crafts (at 200x the price it should cost) and you eat a big lunch of local food. The routine's the same, whether you're in Mexico, India, South Africa or Vietnam, yet I continue to go on these excursions.

It's all so fakey, but I don't know any other way to see new parts of the world. 10 of us loaded onto a bus, learned about the Mekong area, and stopped at a temple where people offered to take photos of us with a ginormous buddha, seemingly made especially for tourists. The photographers reminded me of my visit to the Taj Mahal, but the background was a lot less impressive.

We then took a boat to some island where they harvest honey made from bees who pollinate longan plants, so it's especially sweet and fragrant. We looked at a bunch of stuff made from coconut wood and shells, sat down to eat fruit and try the honey tea, then were serenaded by a local "band."

The band consisted of a few musicians who looked extremely bored, two female singers dressed in traditional Vietnamese dresses and one male singer who, sadly, was not wearing a traditional Vietnamese dress. The first song they sang was about the region. The second song was about tourism (Really?). The third song was a love song and I didn't catch what the fourth song was about. I didn't really enjoy the music, but we felt guilted into tipping, of course.

We then got onto these wagons dragged by tiny horses to another spot about a mile away. This part of the tour was a bit sad - the poor little horses were pulling carts of overweight tourists up and down a stretch of road in the blazing heat. I thought maybe this would make a nice campaign for PETA.

After a brief spot to take a photo with a python around our shoulders (no thanks), we got onto little rowboats that cruised down a canal. This part of the tour felt very much like Disney-Vietnam, since it was obvious the boats had motors, but women rowed us along anyway. Vietnam is so charming and romantic!

We boarded the original boat, made a pit stop at another island where a local family made some icky coconut candy and sold arts and crafts made from coconut shells (I overpaid for a small gift for Puppy.), then re-boarded the boat for land.

Then it was time for lunch. These tour lunches are always so awkward. All the tourists sit at tables in one area, while the tour guides sit sequestered in another area of the restaurant. The food, however, was very interesting and pretty good. We had weird puff balls made from rice flour, some frightening-looking fish, tasty vegetables and other dishes I cannot remember. The highlight for me was the super-sweet Vietnamese coffee.

We then bussed back to the hotel, and received a geography/history lesson along the way. I think the most interesting thing to me has been learning that the Vietnamese refer to the "American War." It makes sense that they don't call it the Vietnam War, but I never really thought about it before.