I should be a reptile model

On the last day in Vietnam, I attended a Semester at Sea trip to the Mekong Delta. Before we arrived there we stopped at a beautiful Buddhist temple. They had an absolutely enormous statue of Buddha. His belly button alone seemed to be as tall as me.









The Mekong Delta is huge water system that is the heart of many of the Vietnamese livelihoods. It is a highway across Southern Vietnam and is home to the dozens of aquatic creatures Vietnamese fishers depend on. Boats, floating houses, and huge tankers fill the waterway.





We stopped off at a few places along the delta, enjoying fresh local fruit, taking donkey carriage rides, and holding giant snakes!

We ate delicious rose apples right from this tree:


For lunch we ate handmade fish spring rolls from this freshly baked fish.


Carriage ride:


Shout out to all you Missourians out there!


In the heart of the jungle lining the delta there was a candy shop, which made coconut taffy from hand.


I was about to pee my pants:


Annecdote:
3/2/2010: All over Vietnam I had seen small bottles of liquid with scorpions, snakes, spiders, and other creepy creatures inside. While on this trip, I was coerced into trying this weird concoction, what the natives call “snake wine”. The name says it all for how bad it tasted.





Tomorrow we will be India!