Day Six

Today was our first long day trip in Vietnam.  We woke up early to leave the hotel at 7:30 and headed to the Mekong Delta.  It was about an hour and a half long bus ride but we made a pit stop so it wasn't too bad.  We stopped at the Mekong Rest Stop and got to go into the gift shop that they had there.  It was a very pretty rest stop with a restaurant out back and a pond in the middle.  Our first destination in the Delta was a meeting with people for ACDI/VOCA.  They showed us around their compound and where they seperated and fermented the seeds from the cocoa.  We then went to the actual cocoa farm and got to sample some of their products.  The chocolate bars they let us eat were amazing!  They had milk, dark and white chocolate.  We also had the chance to buy the products they make.  I bought a container of hot chocolate mix made from the cocoa grown at the farm. 

After the cocoa farm we had lunch at a very nice restaurant in the Mekong Delta.  The lunch was set up much like our welcome dinner with multiple courses shared by the table.  The meal was very good and everyone left the table stuffed.  We boarded the bus for the third or fourth time that day and headed to a dock to hop on a boat for a river tour.  The dock was loaded with shops and most of us bought the cone hats rice farmers where.  Our tour guide took us to multiple banks and islands all along the Delta including coconut island where we got to sample coconut candy.  All of the food and candy that we got to try in the Mekong Delta was extremely good.  We left the Delta around 4 o'clock and returned to the hotel just in time to meet up with some UEF students for dinner.

We decided to go to a restaurant called Kishi Kishi for dinner.  Basically it is a building with a huge conveyor belt with chairs and hot pots around the belt.  You sit down and on the belt are all kinds of raw food that you take and boil in your hot pot.  There was everything from shrimp to noodles and it was an all you can eat type thing.  It has been easy to tell so far that the food here is much more unique and good than most food in the States.  Today was a very long day and I am looking forward to our day trip to the beach tomorrow!