Today, we visited the Mekong Delta. We took a boat out on the water where we stopped at several different islands. On the first island, we tried some local fruits (including jackfruits and mangoes) while listening to some traditional Vietnamese music. At this point, we had barely arrived at the Delta but I was already entranced. The fruit was fresh, it wasn’t dreadfully hot, and there was beautiful greenery (and a large quantity of chickens) in every direction I looked. After we finished up with our fruit, we walked to a new area that smelled suspiciously like chocolate. Sure enough, we got to see fresh cacao plants and sample fresh chocolate, another one of the island’s products. Right after this, we went back into what appeared to be a garden of sorts with two large snakes in the front. Naturally, a few people were spooked, but most of us were ecstatic once we were told we were going to get the chance to hold one of the snakes. Then we headed back to the boat where we were given full coconuts with protruding straws. I’m typically not the biggest fan of coconut, but wanting to get the full experience, I gave it a try.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this coconut water. It didn’t taste anything like the coconut I’m used to disliking. I then learned how versatile coconuts truly are. For example, the thin brown shell is used for coconut oil, the thick white insides can be used for plain old food, and the “fur” outside of the shells can even be used to harvest coconut fibers in factories. After learning all of this, we were shown a small shop with handmade coconut candies – which were being made on site – and plenty of small souvenirs, many of which incorporated other parts of the coconuts. After the coconuts, we got to try tea with real honey – and of course, we had the chance to hold the bees as well. We then took horse-drawn carriages to the river and caught our connecting boats (smaller, rowboat style) to get back to our main boat.

The last island we went to is where we had our lunch. It was absolutely HUGE and very pescatarian-friendly. I thoroughly enjoyed this meal, as well as all of the other treats we got to try theoughout the day. It’s incredible to think that everything we had is grown right there on the island. Every aspect of our tour highlighted an example of the Mekong Delta’s potential for financial development.

However, without the necessary precautions taken to protect the Mekong from climate change, all of its tremendous potential will be completely wiped out.