Tagestour ins Mekong Delta

This morning at 7:30 am we were picked up in the hotel lobby by our 'fantastic' tour guide Larry 😁! That meant for us - 'getting up at 6:00 am' 😩! Daniela has a wake-up melody on her phone, so you voluntarily wake up 5 minutes earlier to avoid hearing it 😂!

We walked with Larry to our small minivan and he told us that only one couple still needs to be picked up! That was great, with only 4 people it's almost like a private tour! At the beginning, Larry explained the itinerary of our tour👍 and then told us a lot of interesting things about the Mekong Delta and Vietnam 😊! He spoke very good English and we took advantage of that 😉! He answered all our pent-up questions 😂! Thank you, Larry 😉

After an interesting 2.5-hour drive, we arrived at the Mekong Delta! Oh, I have to write this down - I could often see graves in the fields! But I wasn't sure if they were actually graves. Larry said 'yes, they are graves, people don't have money for transportation, so they are buried in the rice fields 🙆! Many graves look impressive, they have small pagodas ☺️!

Back to the Mekong Delta - first, we boarded a long wooden motorboat! With this boat, we went to the floating markets 😁. Larry explained to us exactly how we could recognize which boat offers which goods! The sellers have attached a bamboo stick to the front of the boat, and at the top of the pole, there is, for example, a coconut or a pineapple - so coconuts or pineapples are offered here 👍😉! In principle, easy to understand! Our boat docked with the coconut boat and we were supplied with coconuts, they tasted very delicious.

Then we stopped at a pier and we had 20 minutes to visit a market of the locals! The entire market was covered with tarps, and we had to walk bent underneath! The locals don't have this problem since most of them are quite short 😉! There were live animals at the market! Fish, crabs, chickens, ducks, etc., were then also prepared there 😵, 'disgusting'! Meat in various variations was on the tables, my favorite was the meat-fly version 😂😂😂! But there were also fruits, toys, and clothes. The saleswomen there were very nice and we were allowed to take pictures of everything 😀!

Next, we boarded a small wooden boat and were sailed through the Mekong area via small tributaries. A local woman rowed our boat by hand and navigated through the canals. The Mekong Delta area is also tropical jungle, banana palms, coconuts, etc. everywhere! It was super exciting, and again, amazing sounds came from the jungle!

After this great tour, the 'highlight' came - Traditional folk music!!!🙆 Anyone who has ever witnessed one of my laughing fits knows what I went through here! Daniela even managed to film the group 😂! Tears came to my eyes 😂, even now, as I type this, I can't help but laugh again! You can't imagine, in an impossible hall (with a kiosk), locals sang the same 2 songs over and over - one of the group members always looked angrily around! Fortunately, after 15 minutes, they said 'let's continue'! 😂😂😂😂!

Now came something super interesting again, we were allowed to watch some locals in action as they produce various products! We saw how they make their rice liquor, their coconut candies, or honey 😉! We had to taste everywhere 🙆 all sorts of candies in countless variations... I said to Larry 'afterwards, I need to go to the dentist'!!! I left out the 'booze', but Daniela was brave and wolfed everything down 😂😂😂! Her facial expressions after the tasting were priceless 😂😖😂!

At the end of our tour, there was a traditional lunch 😂! Folks, this was also a blast! Luckily, the other couple also had some issues with the dishes served! Everything looked very delicious, but we didn't dare to try everything 🙆! The rice was very tasty 😋! There were also 4 dogs running around our table. We fed them the remaining meat! At the end, Larry said, 'oh, you ate well, it was delicious'!!! Oooof course 😂😂😂😂😂!

Afterwards, we were brought back to the pier by motorboat and headed back to Saigon 😉!