Day 6

Our day started off with a morning walk through the beautiful gardens of the homestay where we saw numerous domesticated birds as well as wild plants and animals. We arrived back home around breakfast time where we enjoyed mangos, bread, and eggs served with Vietnamese coffee and green tea. We then boarded our boat full of bikes from our previous rides and greeted Hao and our temporary biking guide for the day, who introduced himself as Mr. Henry. Mr. Henry led us to a charming rice patty field, where we learned about the origin of the village's lettuce and coriander supply, and later enjoyed jasmine tea in the shade. During our tea time, we laughed with Mr. Henry about various random topics. We biked back to the boat where we had our "near death experience". The tide was low, and our boat was running out of gas. As the captain was away from the steering wheel refueling the engine, our boat drifted towards the columns of the bridge where the side of the boat took a blow, aggressively crashing into a tin sign. It was fun. Our boat carried on, and we stopped off at a local brick factory with huge rooms filled with clay and porcelain pots. We biked out of the factory, through a bustling town, and onto a ferry that took us across the Mekong Delta with our bicycles. We biked the rest of the distance to our homestay and took a two hour long break. Then, we delved into a very muddy, man made canal which to our surprise was filled with many catfish and elephant ear fish. We struggled in the mud for an hour spastically hand fishing, and followed it up with a mud throwing war. When we were finished fishing, we rinsed off in the Mekong Delta and showered. After we rested, we walked over to the neighboring homestay and listened to live traditional music and learned about the Vietnamese instruments. We ate our catch of the day with some rice and shrimp. With our bellies filled, Hao brought us over to an open area, where we played games involving balloons, corns starch, garlic, sticks, blindfolds, and clay pots. Wheeeeeee Whaaaaaa yeeeee whoooooo haaaaa
-Maddie and Melissa