Vietnam!

When we got to Vietnam, one of our travel nightmares was realized. Our hotel didn't have our booking information. Apparently, the hotels access to hostel bookers (a popular online site which we used to book the hotel) wasn't available. After a bit of confusion, the lady told us we could go to another hotel, "her" hotel...which was confused us even more because we figured we WERE at her hotel...but anyways they brought us over there and told us that we would pay the original hotel, and book our tours through there, but we would stay and eat breakfast in this other hotel down the street. They asked us to keep our passports at the front desk during our two days but being already on red-alert because of the confusion, we refused. It all sounds a lot sketchier than it actually was, I'm sure, but nonetheless it was an entertaining way to begin our time in Vietnam.

We decided in order to make the best of our limited time, we would book a couple tours to enable us to see everything we wanted. Tuesday was our first full day and so we went on a Mekong Delta tour. Its a lush area with tall palms and canals and was also a site for battles between Viet Cong and the U.S during the Vietnam war. We took a bus to the delta area and then took two boats to get to the island - one larger boat and then a smaller one. Our first stop was to drink some local honey tea made from fresh honey straight from vietnamese bees. The locals of the island made it for us and it was quite sweet but very good! After a couple minutes the bees started flying around us...but I kept my best to stay calm! For those of you who aren't aware, I am pretty scared of bees. Its gotten better the past couple years but I have been known to scream and sacrifice ice cream cones to the gravel gods if a bee came near them. Anyway, a bee flew near my cup and then, perfect, landed on it. The people sitting across from us thought it was hilarious, I was amused but shifting uncomfortably in my chair deciding whether or not to take a picture, which, in the end I did. The next time I looked at the cup the bee had fallen into my tea! Although the usual thought that would enter my head would be "die, sucker! die!" I actually felt bad for it and rescued it with my spoon.

Next it was time for others in our group to face a fear. As I was taking a closeup picture of the bee I just saved from bee-heaven, Rach elbowed me and said "Meg! Behind you!" I looked behind me and our tour guide had brought out a snake...a really REALLY big snake! In my head I was like a kindergartner "me! ooo pick me!" and so when the guide offered it to me I was really excited. Rach and I both had some time with the serpent and after that we took another small boat to a different island where we sampled fresh coconut candy. Well, its more like coconut caramels but it was ridiculously delicious.

We then took a short bike tour around the area. It was fun to be on bikes again (a one-speed at that) and it really felt like being a local biking around on the trails.

We also got to eat some fresh fruit prepared by some of the island people. They told us that the little bowl in the middle was to dip the pineapple in. It appeared to be the consistency of sugar, so I dove my piece of pineapple down into it and covered the bottom half, perfectly confident it would taste sweet and delicious. I bite into my pineapple and start chewing...noticing that hmm it doesn't really taste that sweet. A half second later I was coughing and grabbing for my tea. Not only was it SALT, it was red pepper super spicy salt. Why in the WORLD would you put that on your fruit?! It took me a few more experiences with it to understand that you're really not supposed to use THAT much, and when used in moderation, it actually really kinda works. Who knew.

While sitting down on a mini horse-drawn-carriage between stops on the island, a few of the older women put their arms up against Rach's and my legs. At first we were confused, but we soon realized they were comparing skin color. They were amazed at how white we were. And ladies and gentleman, we WERE white. I mean, whiter than rice...heck even I was amazed at how white we were! But it was a really interesting experience kind of chatting with these women about how they envied our skin and thinking how we envied them for their tanner skin.

After our day-long adventure we headed back to Ho Chi Minh city proper and did some great shopping! Rach and I both found Northface ski jackets for $35 which we were both really excited about. They have some really cool stuff in Vietnam and I brought home a few great souvenirs.

The motorbike traffic in Ho Chi Minh was INSANE! There were no walk signs so you had to cross in the midst of all the chaos. For a city with 10 million people, over 4 million have motorbikes. I think my memories of the city will always have the sound and smell of motorbikes in them.
Stay tuned for our 2nd day in Vietnam!