Today was my trip to the Mekong Delta (2hr bus ride from Ho Chi Minh city). Our first stop on the way was the Vinh Trang Pagoda which was built in 1849. We then headed to the Mekong Delta which is a river that runs through Vietnam and is home to 20 million. We took a boat that fit all 40 of us across the river to a barge where we all got into multiple smaller motor boats that fit 8 people. We took these boats down a smaller stream through jungle like terrain. Our destination ended up being a coconut candy factory (not a factory like you might think of. It was just a stove) in the middle of the jungle. We tried the different coconut candy, honey cumquat tea, and got to hold a snake. We then disembarked back down the stream where we went to another location on the Delta where we tried different tropical fruits. To get back to the main big boat we took a 4 person paddle boats with two Vietnamese guides paddling the boats for us. As we went down the stream some locals on the side of the stream would greet the guides and then hold up American dollar bills to show us to tip the guides. Now after seeing this over and over again I got a little annoyed at the prodding and ended up not giving in.
We then returned to shore and headed back towards Ho Chi Minh with stops at a local market in Mytho (pop. 200,000). Afterwards we stopped at a restaurant in Mytho that was on a river and had animals such as monkeys and snakes running around and in small cages. We then returned back to the hotel by 6:30pm.
Some random biology facts about Vietnam:
- Vietnam is a very narrow country about 35 miles wide.
- There have been 3 new animal species found in the last 30 years (all similar to a deer)
- 7000 different types of plants
- Only 3% of land area is protected
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