Over the weekend we spent our time in the Mekong Delta region and it was a blast! We stayed at the Lang Du Lich My Khanh Resort and it was beautiful! Right after we arrived on Saturday, we were taken to their activities area which had a water park kind of thing where there was a big pool and lots of things for us to try not to fall off of. Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures as I did not have my phone with me so you will have to use your imagination or look it up. I am not a good swimmer, actually I hesitate to say that I can swim at all but likely the water wasn’t that deep so I was alright for the first activity where we just had to jump in the water if we lost a game of rock-paper-scissors. The second game had us on a shaky bridge and we tried to knock the other team into the water below and this is where I struggled because I hate losing my balance and when it’s high up I get a bit scared. If I was alone on the bridge I would be fine but alas I was not so I could not stand up on the bridge. There was a rope activity that I didn’t understand nor did I get to participate ad my team lost before I could even get on the rope bridge. After that, we had a swimming contest in which I did not give it my all because if I tried, I would’ve smoked everyone else and they would have been really sad so if you think about it, I did everyone a favor, you’re welcome. Our next activity was fishing the old Vietnamese way with wooden traps. I did not participate as I was being quite lame. They claimed the fish we caught would be our dinner but it wasn’t true. It would’ve been cool but I didn’t really expect it to be true.
We had a very early start on Sunday morning at 5:30 in the AM which wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be. The reason we got up so early was to head to the floating market of Can Tho. The boat road was really beautiful, my favorite part was seeing the sun rise, which is the cover picture for this blog. Sailing on the Mekong was something I’ll never forget. Along the river there were several homes with direct access to the water that reminded me that Vietnam is still a developing country as many of them had metal sheets as roofs. I was similarly reminded all throughout the entire drive too and from Can Tho as many of the homes I saw from the bus were very poor looking. It made me contemplate how privileged I am to be able to stay in the nice air conditioned bus the entire time while everyone else was living in open houses and struggling to get by. This feeling was exemplified by the houses that were actually on the water as they had actual advertisements on them. I would imagine they put those ads up to be able to afford to keep living there which made me feel really bad because I don’t think people should have to do that to be able to keep their house. It’s not even something I would ever consider as an option back in the states but it’s a choice several families had to make to continue their traditional way of life. I remembered that Tuan, our guide, told us if the floating market wasn’t there, there would be no tourism in Can Tho and it sounded like the city depended on tourism heavily. I don’t think he was being super literal but it make me feel kind of strange. On one hand, I’m glad to be supporting the town but it felt wrong that it was in this way. It also made me wonder how the town got by during the pandemic. Perhaps its survival indicates that the city will do just fine without as much tourism. Despite those feelings, I had a wonderful time in the Mekong Delta and I would love to return in the future! I hope in the future more people from the area are lifted out of poverty and can live comfortable lives.