Last Day in Vietnam

VIETNAM DAY 5:

Sadly, today was my family's last day together for the next two months.  I am so glad that I got to share part of my amazing journey with my mom and brother, however.   It wasn’t hard to say goodbye because I know how many exciting things I’ll have to report.  Today was a full, fun day though.  Early we met our tour for a 2 hour drive to the Mekong Delta in Vietnam.  We met a small boat and headed out on our river cruise with coconuts in hand to enjoy along the way.  After finishing the milk in them (I dumped mine out in the river because it was gross) we had them sliced in half to try the coconut meat.  Truthfully, that wasn’t much better, but it was still fun to dissect.  Shortly later we arrived at a small village where we saw coconut candy being made and even got to try it!  We also stopped at another neighboring village to try local fruits.  One was like a lychee and another was a dragon fruit.  Both were good, but the pineapple was still my favorite. For lunch we walked through the village down a dirt road and into a thatched roof hut, open wall dining area where we had a whole fried elephant fish as our first course for lunch.  One of the mothers at our table pretended to make the fried fish talk by moving its jaw- I was disgusted so I didn’t have much of the meal. 

My favorite part of the day was after lunch when we walked to another village community and loaded into handmade wooden boats called gondolas.  Two ladies rowed us down the narrow, tree canopy river and we were able to see homes on either side with little kids running around and mothers hanging up laundry by the river.  After about 20 minutes we popped out of the tiny river right by our boat to take us back to shore.  After a long day in the Mekong Delta and back in Ho Chi Minh city now, we picked up the dress I had made the first day of the trip.  It turned out a lot better than I expected!! I’m going to wear it to our fancy Ambassador’s Ball at the end of the voyage.  For dinner we ate at another great Vietnamese place called Lemongrass and rushed back to the ship right in the knick of time.  My mom and Trent got to come back on the ship with me for the last hour and meet the deans of the voyage at an ice cream reception. It was a nice way to end the trip together and say goodbye to the other parents we had met along the way.  After rushing my family back out the gangway because they were the last ones to disembark, I felt even more excited about the rest of the voyage and the many adventures I’ll have to share along the way.