We had a two-day trip into the Mekong Delta. During the peaceful three-hour ride, we got to see life in Vietnam outside of the city. You really begin to understand why Vietnam exports so many goods because there was farmland everywhere. One interesting fact we were told on the way was that random coffins would sometimes sit in the middle of fields. Coffins placed in the corners of farms were for Vietnamese people who died of natural causes, but the randomly placed ones marked spots where people had died from bombings during the war.
When we arrived at the resort, it took the guys and me about five minutes to put our stuff down before running out to the pool. It was a perfect day to swim, but the UV index was only 6, so I was not too hopeful about getting a nice tan. I actually ended up getting a little sunburnt because I thought putting sunscreen only on my face would be enough.
After leaving the pool, we crossed the street sticky-rice style and found our way to what looked like an amusement park. We put on these fire robes and headed over to the water games. Personally, my favorite was the bridge that moved back and forth. I had seen something similar on TikTok a while back and always wanted to try it. It was not exactly like the videos because the bridge did not sway much on its own—we were mostly just pushing each other off.
We then headed to a small fish canal where we tried catching fish. It was fun because it reminded me of going fishing with my dad during little camping trips when I was younger. The only difference was that the fish were bigger, and we were catching them with traps instead of luring them in with bait.
After a few hours, we cleaned up and headed to dinner, where there was a lot of karaoke. A few guys and I gave everyone a pretty good performance to remember. Shortly after, someone started singing a slow song, and I got to go out and slow dance on the dance floor. A few summers ago, my friend’s mom taught me how to swing dance, which I tried to show off, but my friend Jake had absolutely no talent for slow dancing. Later, I got to dance a little with our UEF guide, which went much better. We ended the night pretty late, even though we knew we had to wake up early.
It was 5 AM, and time to get ready for the boat trip. We headed out to the floating markets, where boats would chase down our boats and sell coffee and fruit. It was fascinating to see this type of market because there is nothing like it back home. There were all these boats and docks full of people buying and selling goods. It was crazy to think that I bought a bunch of candy in the middle of a river. We headed back to the resort while watching the beautiful sunrise, ate breakfast, and then made our way back to Ho Chi Minh City to start our last week in Vietnam!
