"How did I get here?": Mekong Delta

This past weekend we went on an overnight trip to the Mekong Delta! We left HCMC around 8am and drove to Ben Tre province. We took a motorboat ride along the river and stopped at a few different places to see how the families live. First we stopped at a farm that made bricks. Then we stopped at a farm that specialized in making honey. The last stop was at a farm that specialized in making coconut candy. After that we took at motorcart ride (video attached) through a small village. Then we got onto a row boat and had a trip down a small canal to the restaurant for lunch. As we walked up to the tables they each had a whole fish on them. The waitress came over and showed us how to pick the fish apart and make a fresh spring roll from it. The fish still had the scales on and that was alittle hard to get past at first but it tasted pretty good! I can't remember what else we ate there but it was delicious. We got back on the tour bus and went to Can Tho, where we stayed for the night.
We had a set dinner at the hotel and then went into the town via a shuttle from the hotel to explore for a little while.

The next morning we had breakfast bright and early and then went to the Cai Rang floating market. This floating market is supposed to be the biggest floating market in Mekong. Its the one that everyone from the smaller villages goes to buy wholesale and then bring back to their markets. We got there a little after 8am and market was winding down- it is the most crowded from 4a to 7a. Our tour guide explained to us that during that time it is also very loud from the noise of all of the motorboats and it is more peaceful at this time. I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed the loudness and boat fumes but I was really looking forward to seeing the market at its peak. After the market we went to a fruit farm and had a sample of fresh fruit. As a group we all tried durian together. Durian is supposed to be very smelly (stinky smell) it was described to me as almost rancid. In many hotels in Southeast Asia durian is banned because of the smell. I wasn't sure how I felt about this but I'm always upto try anything once. We peeled back the skin and I was waiting for the smell to hit me- but it never did! Don't believe all the hype! Durian does not smell that bad and it actually tasted pretty good. I don't think I will be eating durian everyday but I definitely had a good experience with it my first time. I don't have any documentation of us eating durian because my camera died but as soon as someone uploads their pictures/video I will update this post. I also tried jackfruit, which I thought was stronger smelling than durian but it tasted pretty good. I really like papaya and I've had it a few times since I've been here. After the fruit garden we took a nice long boat ride back to the hotel and had about an hour to kill before we began the 5 hour journey home to HCMC.

Brick makers right off the river.

Bee hive that makes the honey I tasted.

Honey and tea shot- very sweet but very good!

The family played some traditional music for us.

Motorcart ride through the village.

Luy our guide from SEAMEO rowing the boat.

Tara and Helen!

Carla 1 rowing the boat

Our whole fish that we picked clean!

Roll made from the fish.

Beautiful sunset at the hotel before dinner =)
Felt like home.

Pup- just chillin'

On route to the floating market.

Floating market.

This woman was selling jackfruit and she looked so happy- probably because she was ripping off all of the tourists. I wasn't able to capture her big smile.