Visit to the Mekong Delta

On March 23rd, we and one of the interns, Moritz, are going on a very special trip that we are really looking forward to. We are driving out of the city in a bus where we are lying down on strange and somewhat rancid beds. Our destination: the Mekong Delta.
In fact, we had already seen the many arms and bends of the Mekong from the plane when we arrived in Vietnam.
Now, finally, something other than the dirty, noisy streets of HCMC awaits us.
It is the complete contrast.
When we get off the bus we are standing on a small road and it is already much greener here. Banana trees, palm trees, passion fruit trees everywhere - we don't know any of them, but it is beautiful, exotic and refreshing. 3 moped drivers are already waiting. Moritz actually arrives later because he needs to take a woman and child somewhere. Alina and I soon arrive at our apartment. We are standing in the middle of a large garden. There are various wooden huts in between, connected by stone or earth paths and it is quiet. Not completely, because we hear birds chirping, buzzing insects and now and then another animal and I initially feel like my ears are ringing. That is somehow strange. You are suddenly standing in an idyllic setting and your body briefly radiates all the city noise and absorbed stress. We are given a really friendly welcome and are immediately given a refreshing coconut to drink. I have never found a coconut as good as this in HCMC. This was really fresh and delicious and later I had it opened and ate the whole thing. Super tasty!!
We use the day to simply arrive and enjoy ourselves. Stay in our new garden paradise with pool, play ball, eat by the river and then go for a little walk through the village in the evening.
Moritz discovers sweet potato chips which we like and which we pick up again two days later. There is a dog guarding every other house and we have to be careful that no one jumps on us. A group of people is trying to build a huge swimming pool somewhere in the semi-darkness - they laugh at us and say hello when they notice the surprised looks - and soon we are standing in such darkness that we can see the stars in the sky very clearly and hardly anything else.
This weekend we also go on a really great and varied tour that our host offers. We walk to a wider river and initially travel in a larger motor-driven boat. We pass huge cargo ships and fishermen's houses and first go to a coconut farm. We are shown how coconuts can be processed. Skewered, peeled, shaved, ground into biscuits, drinks or candy. We stock up on samples and souvenirs and then our group moves on. An Italian couple is also there who we get on well with. Our next stop is a camp where they process cocoa beans. They make really good chocolate. But it would melt, so we don't buy anything here and just try things out. Then we are given a colorful fruit plate and a traditional Vietnamese performance of music, singing and dancing and at the end a woman draws us in and we dance to her singing. It seems a little strange how individual ladies in their dresses sing, sometimes nervously, while we sit at the table with food and are sung to without understanding what the song is about. Because they are folk songs, songs that mean something and unfortunately we don't understand the meaning and I'm sorry that they have to sing. It seems like... not as if they really enjoy it, but it's probably also about the donations that they collect afterwards.
However, the musicians have very exciting instruments and it sounds very interesting the way they play.
We discover a large caged boa constrictor here, which they let us hold, and it is impressive to have the strong, heavy animal lying over our shoulders and to feel its scaly, cool skin. But it is all the more sad to see the small cage in which the animal is supposed to live.
The third activity is one of our favorites. As we had hoped at the beginning, this time we go on very narrow boats. We are loaned the typical Vietnamese bamboo hats and are stilted across the Mekong arms by one person in this boat. Like in a gondola in Venice, we go silently between the palm trees along the brown river. It is beautiful and so relaxing. We enjoy the landscape, the gentle movement of the boat and the small animals that we discover. Finally, we are surrounded by peaceful, harmonious nature. Here we realize what we are missing most. All too soon, after 20/30 minutes, we reach our motorboat and the tour continues to the penultimate stop. A bee farm. This stop offers less, apart from holding a bee grid, the soothing, busy hum of the bees and a sweet honey tea, there is not much to experience here and after just 15 minutes we leave again. The last place that our host shows us is a house in the fishing village where his cousin lives with his family.
The hut in the middle of the water looks very unusual with the holes in the ground for fish enclosures, which are proudly displayed. The fish that they keep and breed here and ultimately sell are getting bigger and bigger. Here too, there doesn't seem to be enough space for the animals. When they are fed, they throw themselves on top of each other.
We at least got an impression of life on the river, even if it remains very strange.
Afterwards we go back to the hostel, where we just have time for lunch before we take a taxi with the Italian couple to the bus back to HCM.