What an amazing weekend! My favorite part of Plus3 was the excursion to the Cu Chi tunnels, so I was really looking forward to our two-day trip to the Mekong delta. After just four hours of sitting on the bus to get to the hotel we were staying at, I realized that I’m not ready for another 30-hour travel time back. The hotel we were staying at was amazing and the rooms were beautiful and the pool was amazing. All the boys went for a quick swim after lunch. It was shocking just how pleasant the water was. It was super warm from being baked in the warm Vietnamese climate, but I think some of the others though it was too hot. I guess I’m more used to people being upset about the water being too cold, so it was interesting to see the difference in perspective on the warm water.

Next on the agenda was the water games! I was super excited because I had no idea what to expect. After we got to the waterpark and put on our traditional Vietnamese attire and headed to the games. It was a super nice area! There was a pit of water with hanging objects and sprinklers overhead. There was also a stage with an emcee to host the event. I thought the games we played were super fun; my favorite was the bridge game where we had to stay on a swinging bridge and try not to fall into the water. Some of the games had their own challenges. For the swimming race the pants I wore for the day fell of when I tried to swim, and another the rope challenge was super hard because the rope wasn’t very taught. Even so, the games were a lot of fun, and I was happy to contribute to team 1. Another thing I noticed was that the water was very dirty, and you couldn’t see the bottom so jumping in was scary. It made me wonder what type of regulations they have in America that they don’t have in other countries that allow this to happen. Another thing was that the pictures of the sports day had nice blue water, so it was a little disappointing to see it be brown.

The next day we went to the floating market. Most of the small boats were selling fruits, and the most complex goods were on a larger platform that you had to get on, kind of like an oil rig. It was super crowded and I saw a good mix of tourists and locals. It was odd though because they had a very large space but were only selling a select number of items. I found the same coconut candies in over four different locations. I bought some candy, almond pastries and something random that I couldn’t read, just hoping it was pastry roll (it turned out to be pure cane sugar). The snacks I got, as well as some Tipo brand pastries and cookies I bought earlier, are all individually packaged. It’s not only inconvenient to the consumer, but also unsustainable. I really want to know why it’s a custom in Vietnam and if it could or should change.