Wow. What a weekend! What an experience. What a feeling. It’s starting to feel fake. This weekend was something that words couldn’t describe. I’m going to try though. It started off with an early wakeup and a few hours by bus before we arrived.
Walking into the resort was a surreal feeling. After a long bus ride though, a break was very needed. We quickly changed and all hit the pool for a fun 2 hour swim. Even around the pool and the resort, it was a completely different feeling from the city. Being in the countryside was a whole new perspective and way of living. Our bus ride there was filled with more wide open land and large farm fields. It was as if traveling from Boston and arriving in Iowa. After our break time in the pool was over we had “activities” planned. I was unsure of what this meant. I had no idea what to expect.
It began with a quick van ride over to the pond where there was a slide, obstacle courses, and a rope line. We were told to put on this brown outfit as if we were farmers in the hot summer heat. The outfits felt weird and unique, being very different from normal shorts and shirts that we are used to in our everyday lives. Walking to the pond, it was dirty and muddy, but the games forced us into the water and I’ll say, it was refreshing! We began with simple rock paper scissors before moving onto the shaking bridge. This was my favorite part. With each team being on separate sides trying to fight each other, we had a blast. People were falling left and right. The fall wasn’t short either. If you were at the top, it was a good 15 foot drop! There was never a dull moment for sure though. We then had a race where we had to balance on the tight rope and if you fell, you were eliminated. My team lost this round, but the competition was amazing!
With no break, we raced off to hand fishing. Having little to zero fishing experience with a hook, I wasn’t sure how this would go using just my hands. But being here, of course I had to give it a try. We hopped into the dirty, two-feet-deep water filled with traps where we had to capture the fish if we felt it with our hands, then quickly reach in, grab it out of the trap, and place the live fish into the buckets. At first, I was honestly shocked by how intense it felt. Every movement in the water made me jump, and trying to grab a slippery fish with my bare hands felt almost impossible. It was really chaotic at first as anything could come to touch your legs at any time. After a few minutes in the water, I started to understand the strategy and calm down a bit. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch any fish myself but my group caught two. This was an experience that is unattainable in America. We were in a forest in the middle of nowhere in Vietnam catching fish with our bare hands. The time flew by in the water before it was time to head back, shower, eat, and sleep to prepare for our early upcoming wakeup!
The 4:50 alarm was no joke but I was eager to see the floating markets up close. As we hopped on the boat, the weather was perfect and the timing was just right for us to witness the sunrise. Getting to see a whole different lifestyle on the water was an incredible feeling. It began with a man who pulled up his boat beside ours, proceeded to grab a hook and attach it to the side of our boat. He started quickly asking if we wanted coffee and a few of us did. Negotiating prices started quickly and Hannah seemed to know what she was doing! The man in the boat had an extremely efficient system with a spot for his ice, a spot for his coffee, and a spot for his milk. I was fascinated to see this whole business being run essentially solely on water. We also stopped at a floating market which had so many new and unique items to look at.
The incredible weekend wrapped up with a stop in Can Tho, where I bought a few shirts and we sat in a cafe where we got coffee and drinks. The culture of negotiation for prices within the market is extremely different from America, where there is a set price and there is no moving it. The city was also vibrant and full of energy. Personally, this experience of spending one night and two days in a location like the Mekong was a once in a lifetime experience. I’m excited for our day tomorrow where we will begin with a visit to the Saigon Airport!
