Among the Rice Paddies

On Friday, our morning started very early, a 6 am wakeup where we went on a boat with a local student who took us to the floating markets. I was expecting to see vibrant colors, many people, tourists, and lots of commotion, but what we really got was large boats, locals, and not that much to see. There were many people on boats selling fruits, but at mass quantities to different vendors. It did not seem like we could just go up to boats and purchase things, which I was expecting to do. Nevertheless, it was really interesting seeing these men and women go about their daily lives, bringing goods and fruits from land to water and back again.

During our trip to the floating markets, we stopped at a place where we learned how to make rice noodles. It was really interesting, though I could not really explain what was going on. All I know was that a man was pushing rice into a hot fire, and then dripping a white liquid onto a pan like he was making a crepe, waiting a few minutes, and then rolling it onto a wicker tray to let it cool, which would eventually be turned into noodles. Seeing the process was extremely interesting.

After we returned to the hotel, we left to go home to Ho Chi Minh City, but made a stop along the way. We stopped at the Mekong Delta Rice Institute, where we walked through a rice paddy, cut some rice of our own, and learned of the process to harvest it. We heard from a man who worked there, and he taught and showed us everything that goes into harvesting rice, and maintaining the rice institute. He showed us all of the different strains of rice they harvested (I didn't even know there were different strains), along with all of the environmental developments they are creating to better their institute and the rice production as a whole.

Everyone was glad to return to the comfort of Ho Chi Minh City. As much we loved being in Mekong Delta, we were very happy when we could go back to the peace of our homestays. The Mekong Delta was challenging; it was so hot and buggy, exhaustion consumed us, and that led to difficulty functioning, and the lack of breaks we got made it really hard to push ourselves and be engaged. A weekend off was much needed and much deserved, especially as we head into a week long excursion in Dalat, where we will be at a homestay as well.