Day 6: Mekong Delta

Today was definitely my favorite of the trip so far. We got up extra early to travel three hours into the Mekong Delta, which is south of Ho Chi Minh City. On our way there, we made a stop at a soldier's cemetary, where casualties of what the Vietnamese call the American War have been buried. There were around 4000 or 5000 Vietnamese soldiers buried there, in these beautiful white tombs around a monument that read "the fatherland never forgets." The next stop was at a temple, which I thought was the most beautiful thing I have seen so far on this trip. It's a temple that has been 'made for everyone', according to our tour guide, as many temples in Vietnam are said to be. Inside, there is an altar with four people on it: buddha, a taoist, Jesus, and a confucianist. I wish I could share all of the inside pictures, but there are so many!







Above is a picture of the floating market in the Mekong Delta, where people buy and sell food, supplies, and other necessities as they see fit. This is just one of the things we got to experience at the Delta. After getting on our boat, we first went to a small village and to a house to have fruit and tour their gardens, which was really cool. We then got ferried down to a larger village and to a house where they were making coconut candy (which was delicious, so I bought some for home). While we were at this house, however, it started downpouring. The rain here continues to fascinate me. We waited out the storm for a while and then took a half hour long boat ride through the floating market to another house for lunch, which was amazing. I didn't eat much yesterday, but I definitely made up for it at lunch today. They actually put cooked fish (the whole fish...including the fins, which someone at my table ate) on our tables and we had to make our own spring rolls. They also had these crunchy vegetable rolls and noodle soup that was delicious, along with the usual banana and pineapple for dessert.
My overall impression of the Delta and it's people is that it is much more laid back than in the city, and I very much enjoyed it for this reason. The people did not heckle us to buy things and were always waving and smiling at us. Also, it was really nice to get away from all the motorbikes and honking horns for a while.