the mekong delta pwns.

Getting to the Mekong Delta was not as easy to do on my own as I'd thought, so I went on a 2-day tour, which, thankfully, didn't cost much. The morning of my departure, I had a very pleasant breakfast with two women (one from London and the other from Switzerland) and we talked about our travels. They put my little trip to shame- both were planning to travel for a year and were a couple months into their journeys already. I've found that Southeast Asia attracts a very different type of traveler. Not the bro types that eagerly look to get smashed on foreign booze. These Southeast Asia travelers are dedicated, traveling to travel, because they have a genuine interest in learning about and meeting the world. Yea, they'll indulge in some liquid silliness, but it's not a priority. I like these travelers. And I'm so happy to join their ranks.

So, the Mekong Delta. My first interaction with the Delta was a boat ride in My Tho. Because it was flood season, the water level was up 1.5 meters and it was necessary for us to wear bright orange life preservers. As a non-swimmer, I was more than happy to oblige. On the river it was raining but we still saw many fishing and tug boats out, chugging along, hard at work. Men steered with their feet, leaning forward every now and then to yell something to a neighboring boat. The water was a murky brown but the vibrancy of the trees and greenery on the shores more than compensated. It was lovely.

We lunched in a small village and ate under coconut palm thatched roofs, watching the rain and feeding scraps to stray dogs that wandered and whined. I chatted with fellow travelers and found them all to be very engaging, each eager to tell stories of their travels. I wandered around the area, discovering paths that cut through the groves of fruit trees and finally stumbled upon brightly colored boxes. I learned later that they were tombs and remembered my friend Annie explaining that particular Vietnamese tradition. They bury the deceased on their land, so that the dead may be close to the living and that the living may remember the dead. It's a nice thought, but with my Western upbringing with cemeteries and after hearing way too many ghost stories, I got goosebumps and quickly made my way back to the group.

Our next stop, after another short boat ride, was a coconut candy workshop. I could smell the coconut from the dock and I mock raced a Swedish boy to get there first. He had a sweet tooth to rival mine, which is saying something, and we had spent a ridiculous amount of time talking about candy... Yes, we are 4 years old. Anyway, the candy was delicious! I ate and snuck away several samples (I beat Franz and had 3 more pieces than he did! Once again, I am 4 years old...), buying some to share with my Aunt. With the candy, we were also treated to honey tea, that was served with calamansi (a type of mini lime, the size of a cherry tomato with just as much punch) juice. Delicious!

We then got into row boats and traveled down a narrow canal. It was rainy and a bit stormy, but I found that the elements set the mood quite nicely. I couldn't help but admire the skill of the boatmen, too. Their movements were so graceful and agile, even with the rainy and disturbed waters. They controlled the boats with such ease! And I was so happy to be seated in the front! I geeked out, pretending I was an explorer. It made me miss my mum so much and all the times we spent when I was a kid, watching National Geographic type shows about such boating adventures.

Our last stop was a fruit plantation, where we sampled various native fruits while listening to live, traditional music. Dragon fruit is AMAZING here! If not for the problems with customs, I was willing to spend all my dong on dragon fruit. And a few postcards, I guess. I was appalled when I saw some plates still half full or barely touched by other travelers. I was so, so tempted to eat their leftovers, but decided that I didn't want to come off as, y'know, weird, in the bad way.

So, today, we got up super early to get to the morning floating market in Can Tho. The market was AWESOME!! I wish we had gone earlier to see the market at it's liveliest, but it was still an awesome sight! The area was full of boats, each carrying specific cargo- pineapples, lettuce, dragon fruit, coconuts, onions, carrots... And for advertising, they had poles on which they tied samples of their goods. Simple and effective! The morning air smelled fresh with fruit and vegetables and everywhere I could hear boaters calling out to shoppers and greeting each other. I bought a coconut the size of my head for 35 cents, and contentedly sipped it for the rest of the boat ride. It was surreal. The houses and views along the river were unlike anything. The scenery can best be described as a type of patchwork quilt of textures, materials and colors. The houses were modest but well-kept and brightly colored with laundry lines extended between trees like decorative flags. Some of the houses were pieced together with various sheets and types of scrap metal, which made me think of patchwork quilts in the first place. And all around were various forms of vegetation, with banana and coconut trees overflowing even into the river. I couldn't get enough of how beautiful it all looked and I took way too many photos.

Life in the Delta is so simple. It's a nice change from the complicated (but wonderful and much missed) mess of New York. Being in this attitude climate is definitely a welcomed change from all those years in New York. I kept observing the fishermen, the women selling fruit from their boats, the girls doing laundry, and wondering what their lives were like, especially without the conveniences and accompanying complexities of western life. These thoughts merged with the book I'm reading ("The Geography of Bliss") and I started wondering if they were happy, if they were happier than me, if their simple way of life was better and more fulfilling than mine. I ultimately concluded that there aren't really any answers to those questions and that the best that I can do is to live a happy life in the context of my own existence. Does that make sense?