I am so excited to have finally arrived in Vietnam! I’ll be backpacking my way through the country South to North, starting at the maze of rivers and swamps that make up the Mekong Delta.
Starting at My Tho city, my group and I took a big boat along the muddy waters of the Mekong through Dragon, Phoenix, and Unicorn islands (all named after spiritual animals believed to bring specific types of luck to their namesake) to Turtle Island for a traditional Mekong seafood lunch.
Lunch! 
Durian fruit 
The big boats 
The mighty Mekong River!
After lunch, we got back on the boat to visit a traditional Mekong village. After we saw a (delicious) coconut-candy making operation and sampled honey straight from the honeycomb, we boarded longboats and drifted to a dock where we ate fresh fruit and listened to a performance of traditional southern Vietnamese folk music.
Making coconut candy 
Drifting down the river 
All of the people were so friendly 
Making new friends! 
These hats are the best 
Traditional folk music and instruments
Also, no big deal but I held a python and tasted traditional Vietnamese snake wine, which is made by infusing whole, venomous snakes in rice wine (I’m still alive and well so I guess the venom is safe to drink…?). Common in Asia, rice wine is a high alcohol content beverage fermented and distilled from rice. I think it tastes like moonshine or ever clear, and by that I mean it tastes terrible.
Scorpion wine 
Snake wine 
Questioning my decision to try the snake wine 
I was handed this python by a little Vietnamese girl who treated it like her puppy.
😀
I just keep smiling through all your adventures – from the safety of my couch.