The day when literally nothing went according to plan. Oh well!

Hello everybody,

Today I had the day off, and I had made plans with Lindsay, who works in Tiền Giang, very close to Bến Tre, to go into Ho Chi Minh City. I was incredibly exhausted in the morning from staying up too late I was super excited to see her, and also pretty stoked about exploring the area around Bến Tre. Mr. Hoang drove me from Bến Tre College to the coach station, and I boarded the bus going to Ho Chi Minh City.

The bus! 

The bus ride was two hours long, bumpy and uncomfortably close with the person next to me. However, the most uncomfortable part was the mosquitoes and flies who somehow managed to get into the bus. Did you know that buses are apparently a natural habitat for flying bugs? Me neither!

So I got to Ho Chi Minh City, and asked a motorbike taxi to take me to thói son, which is where Lindsay had told me to meet her. He confusedly responded that thói son was between Tiền Giang and Bến Tre, two hours back the way I had come. 

Oh goddamnit.

I had assumed we were going to Ho Chi Minh City, and Lindsay hadn't clarified that thói son wasn't anywhere near Ho Chi Minh City. Gaah. 

Well, nothing for it but to take a two hour bus ride back. I asked the driver to drop me off at thói son, and he agreed. Once we crossed the bridge into Bến Tre province he told me to get off, literally in the middle of nowhere.

I was on a stretch of Vietnamese highway, with motorbikes whizzing by, and nothing obvious nearby. I wandered up to the nearest store, this big coconut candy store, and asked the store owner, an elderly man, where thói son was. He replied that is was back over the bridge (thanks bus driver!) and about ten minutes away (okay I guess that's not that bad). I called Lindsay and got detailed directions from her companion, a Vietnamese teacher at Lindsay's host institution, then hopped onto the motorbike and sped off. 

Lindsay and her host institution Cô Anne were very good sports about waiting for me, they ended up waiting two hours for me to get back. However, once I got there it was absolutely worth the wait.   

The restaurant is right on the banks of the Mekong river, a huge bungalow with giant palm trees growing inside and out. You lie on the hammock and watch the river flow by while drinking from giant coconuts. Yeah. Totally worth it.

Lindsay and Anne

It was great to see Lindsay again, I can't believe it's only been a week since we all said goodbye! We caught up about her climbing Sapa and going to Tiền Giang University, and I talked about the fun times and the struggles at Bến Tre College. Lindsay and I commiserated over the differences between Hanoi and our provinces, and discussed getting our schedules and travel plans. Her guide, Anne, also spoke very good English and we had a lot of fun talking together. 

It was really great to speak English with a native speaker again. There are so many things about your speech patterns that are had to follow for people who have taken as English as a second language, and so you change your speech patterns and word choice when you are with non-native speakers. Speaking with Lindsay, it really felt like I was hearing my voice again for the first time in a week. 

The boats on the Mekong

The Mekong River

Apparently it is possible to get boats from here across the river to Lindsay's province, or to organize boat tours of the delta. Anne knew the cafe owner pretty well, so she said if we ever needed wanted to organize a tour she could get us a good price. Awesome. 

For lunch we wanted to get chào cua, or crab with rice porridge, but we ended up having to settle for chào gà, or chicken with rice porridge. We waited for a while for Anne to figure out the restaurant to order from, and then they had to kill and cook the chicken for us, which took an hour, so by the time we got food I was starving and pretty grumpy from low blood-sugar. However, because the cafe owner knew Anne the restaurant brought over the food for us so we could eat at the cafe without having to leave our luxurious hammocks. Which was pretty sweet.

As usual, the food was delicious. The chicken here is truly free-range, just roaming about the garden, so the meat is chewier but also more flavorful. 

Preparing the food

Truly free-range chickens--we ate a chicken just like these

Coming back from lunch/dinner was also a bit stressful because I had to find someone to take me back to Ben Tre College. Anne convinced the owner's sister to take me over. At first she took me to the wrong campus and I was worried that I wouldn't remember how to get back to my campus. However I remembered, and was so exhausted that I simply passed out. Woke up, fired up some Breaking Bad and got down to writing this post!

It's also my birthday tomorrow (actually, as of this posting, today! [shameless request for presents/cards]), so I'm super excited.

Walked into the bathroom and saw two cockroaches. Thanks for the birthday present, Vietnam. Super thoughtful.

Current insect fatality leaderboard:

9 Cockroaches

1 giant spider

1 normal size spider

So yeah, as you can probably tell from the last few posts, there have definitely been some rough
patches here in Ben Tre, but overall...

...i mean, it's just hard to complain sometimes :)

Thanks all for reading, check in with me again on Monday to see how the weekend went! And yeah, it's my birthday! (shameless request for presents/cards #2)

Take care of yourselves,

Jefferson