The Mekong Delta, Motorbikes, and Me
My time here in Vietnam is already flying by and this past week has been full of so many different experiences so buckle up!
This week classes have settled in and I’ve gained a rhythm to the ebb and flow of Saigon. Tuesday night was one of the craziest nights here all because of football (aka soccer). In case you did not know, football is a huge deal in Vietnam. Tuesday night was the semi-finals for the U23 Vietnamese football team and when I say this was a big deal, I mean this was a big deal. Football is such an essential part to a lot of socializing and culture from what I have experienced, and the team won, making it to the finals. Now everybody remember when the Cubs won the world series? Imagine that reaction but ten times over. The streets filled with people waving their Vietnamese flags and chanting and cheering. I can say I have never experiences anything like it before. I ended up stuck in district one of Saigon and I live in district ten, so it did take a quite a while to get back, but it was worth the experience. I have never seen such pure joy and celebrations like that.
In other exciting news, I finally rode a motorbike (with a helmet because duh)! As I mentioned in my last post, motorbikes are a vital part to transportation in Saigon and I have never ridden one before. The Vietnamese equivalent to Uber is an app called Grab which is exactly like Uber with motorbikes as well. I decided to try it out as riding the bus can get repetitive and I sure did make the right choice. There is nothing like riding on the back of a bike in the bustling streets of Saigon. Its almost scary but, mostly an adrenaline rush and I’m going to be riding a lot more while out here.
We also had our first excursion this weekend where we bussed to the Mekong Delta area of Vietnam. Southern Vietnam, specially the areas away from large cities, offer so many bright and lively experiences. We woke up at 5am to go to the floating markets of Can Tho. Floating markets are exactly what they sound like, boats of people selling fresh produce, coffee, various fruit drinks and such. It was quite the view on the river seeing the sun rise and eating fresh pineapple in a boat.
Shifting focus, we also discussed many important environmental factors affecting the Delta area as well as Vietnam as a whole. We visited a wind farm and got up close and personal with a wind turbine (spoiler alert: it was windy). We also visited the U Minh Thuong national park and took another boat ride around the forest and saw monkeys, walked across a bamboo bridge, and avoided getting leeches from the water. It was absolutely enlightening to be at the front end of a large issue of rising water levels, sustainable power, and the tender balance that needs to be made to create a positive change without negatively affecting another part of the environment.
I feel like I have been here for longer than three weeks because I’ve experienced so much (even more than I was able to write about here!). It is breathtaking and amazing and many more adjectives and the more time I am here, the happier I am that I am spending my semester in Vietnam.