Nager kann man essen!

Yesterday, I joined a group for the second time to make my way to the Mekong Delta by boat for two days. There were six of us. South African grandparents with their grandchild and an American couple from Guam. The couple is considering a visit to Münster after I told them a bit about "Münster, the most liveable city in the world". Well, maybe I was a bit too enthusiastic... but you know what happens with such announcements. It's not excluded though, as both will be living in Germany for a few years soon.

Well, I was only in a tiny part of the Mekong Delta of course. Because any scaredy-cat knows: with 40,000 sq km, it's about 130 times the size of the "most liveable city...". So I have to say, my needle was different than I imagined it. Water as far as the eye can see, the main branches are up to 3km wide, the plants (palms, mangroves and other unknown stuff) are dirty brown up to a height of about 1m depending on the tide, because the water is quite muddy. But: all Vietnamese people swear by the water quality. Mud or no mud. I've read differently, but as a guest, of course, I nodded in agreement.

I had imagined it more: jungle-like, narrow, enchanted. Still, it was more than exciting to see. A huge lifeline and traffic artery. 95% of the boats are definitely not roadworthy 😳😳😳.

Houses, tin shacks, and co. on the banks show quite clearly that living conditions in many parts are far from luxurious. Scaredy-cats knew that, but when you chug through the places like that, it was quite dominant. Incidentally, many houses are directly on the water because building on land incurs taxes.

But even though I imagined the needle differently, the trip was very, very entertaining. Nice people... beyond the group... met, feasted at a floating market (floating market with hundreds of boats), drank rice and snake wine (spirits) again and again, tried all sorts of creatures (rat, snake, frog, snail... all delicious, except snake), and learned a lot about the land and its people from guide Kain. All in all, a successful outing...

And who knows, somewhere the Mekong Delta will already be jungle-like, narrow and enchanted... 😏.