Day 6

Today we wake up at 6 am to go to the coconut land. At 7.30 am we’re at Mr. Truong’s factory to pick him up and his wife. There’s still another stop to pick up Mr. Lam and then we’re on our way on a driving trip of about 3 and a half hours.

Around 9 am we stop at a restaurant to eat breakfast and today we have shrimp noodles soup. But before that Xuan brings some peanuts to table and instead of being roasted, here in Vietnam they put them in water which gives it a quite different taste but easier to chew.

I’m so tired I fall asleep and only wake up when arriving to Cocoland, most known in Vietnam by Ben Tre. Green is the colour, well in all HCMC and Mekong Delta. We went to meet Mr. Dung and so he took us to his house.

People are poorer than in the city, in fact, in Mr. Dung‘s house there’s around 10 people, including Mr. Dung’s parents, brother, sister, wife and children. The house is build with bricks in the middle of the coconut forest. There’s 2 toilettes: one outside and other with a toilette and a shower inside. The women are cooking for the city people. Vietnamese are like these, always offering food to guests so everywhere you go you don’t stop eating or drinking.

While lunch isn’t ready we go to visit the nearest surroundings, which include the pomelo, coconut and banana plantation. Pomelos are cut right from the tree and ate with your bare hands and it’s so sweet. All the fruit in Vietnam is sweet, you just have to choose: mangos, pomelos, dragon fruit, etc...

Time for lunch and the variety in the table is just amazing! There’s fruit, there’s steamed rice, vegetables, white and black chicken, fish and the “piece of resistance” mouse. Vietnamese people don’t waste any food so it’s not strange to find chicken heads and paws in the same plate of the breasts, legs or wings.

I try the rice soup with white chicken and I have to fight with the chicken as it’s not as tender as the ones you buy in the supermarket.

Mouse

Then, Mr. Lam offers me a piece of mouse... I grab those little paws with the chopsticks and it tastes really good, a little spicy but so good I want more. They all laugh at me! I’ve been the “long nose clown” since I arrived. =) they’re always joking at and with me and that makes me feel part of the family.

Almost forgot to tell you that I also tried cocoa in its purest form and ate the core without knowing it, of course and, once more, being the service clown with everybody laughing at my ignorance.

Cocoa

After lunch we drive till Xuan’s family temple and we do our little siesta. Around 3 pm we’re going for a boat ride along Mekong Delta River and there’s no explanation for what I saw.

The landscape is so overwhelming that trying to describe it is just a big mistake. Guess it’s part of my adventure I can’t share with you ‘cause you really have to live it!

There’s houses at the sides of the river, poor houses where lots of people live in poor conditions, there’s people leaving in boats along with 5 star touristic resorts and 5 star boat hotels.

What is most impressive of my journey here is that even if they don’t have much they are happy, they have hope that tomorrow is a better day and they share what they have, even if it’s not that much, with everyone.

We can get lost ourselves in the immensity of the green vegetation and this amazing big river... the boat trip is almost over and it’s getting darker.

Time to go back to the temple, grab our stuff and head home.

Around 9 pm we stop at a fancy restaurant next to the highway and we eat seafood and fish and everything tastes good. We ate fast as we’re tired and want to arrive home. But that’s normal in Vietnamese culture, they don’t spend lots of time at the table: they order, they eat and they leave with no big conversations in between.

There’s still 1 hour driving and as soon as I open my eyes we’re leaving Mr. Lam’s at home, Mr. Truong and his wife and we’re heading back to our beds.

Night night peeps!