Day 2 we decided to take an organized tour (against our better judgement) to the Mekong delta. It was pretty cheap ($24/person) but it was mostly ferrying the group around to various places to buy trinkets. The water coconut farm was interesting, but I wanted to spend more time visiting the beekeepers and listening to the local musicians (whose music sounded a little appalachian to me) and less time listening to the mom yelling repeatedly at her two kids and the group of young American men recounting their exploits in various countries around SE Asia. Plus we got caught in a torrential downpour that lasted 2 hours. All in all, it was good to get a taste of the Mekong delta, but would definitely want to explore more on our own. Unfortunately, we only had 1 day. Day 4 we’re heading north to Huế for a few days.

We’re having a blast, although it’s a bit hot and humid for me (but luckily for me I can get delicious iced coffee all over the place ). the food has been amazing for the most part. we decided to relax our vegetarian eating preference because it’s pretty difficult to find purely vegetarian foods. Luckily, Hue, which was the capital of Vietnam at one point in its history, has a stronger buddhist and vegetarian culture than the rest of the country and we’re told there are several all vegetarian restaurants in town. mostly we just sidle up to any little street food stall that looks to be popular with the locals (usually multiple ones on every corner), sit down on the impossibly small plastic chairs, and point to what someone else is eating. Turns out that Shinjoung has quite the nose for delicious food stalls.

We’ll post some food pics soon. In the meantime, enjoy these little vids of the Mekong delta.

Related posts:

1. Vietnam wrap-up
2. Photos from our SE Asia trip to Singapore, Vietnam and Korea