Today was our third and final day trip out of Saigon. We went and visited the Mekong Delta, Vietnams largest river delta. It is a huge and vital part of Vietnams economy, where 95% of the rice produced there is exported. This is a lot as Vietnam is also the worlds second largest rice exporter. Naturally this was a very fascinating area to see. However, we explored more of the tourist side of the region. We started by taking a boat to Unicorn Island. This is a four km^2 island in the middle of the river. It is very tourist based as had many unique experiences to offer. We had sweet honey tee, where the honey came from bees local to the island. We also tried some of their locally made snacks, like fried banana, ginger, and their very unique coconut and peanuttier candy. This was very good and if I knew I wouldn’t have an issue at US immigration would have brought some home. This was then followed with an assortment of local fruit and tea while the locals sang to us. The next part was my personal favorite moment of the day. This was when we got to canoe through the delta on small boats. It was so fun and cool to ride through the vegetation and experience how the locals get around. It was also very fun to play some music as one of our Vietnamese friends brough his speaker, and with the permission of the boat driver. After this we traveled to another island for lunch where after we had the opportunity to feed alligators.
It was very interesting getting to see this area after learning about it the week before. It is one of the most threatened areas to climate change and it is easy to see why when there. It is very low lands surrounded by water. It’s also scary when you add the fact that tourism is a big part of the economy and people lively hood in the area. Even with the start of the rainy season there is already a decrease. It would be a shame to see these areas destroyed. So it is an encouragement to protect them and do what we can to help them out. We sadly now have two days left and I’m trying not to think about it. So, for now, I’m going to soak in as much as possible and hold on as long as I can!
