Mekong Delta

The Kett family from Minneapolis are in the country. They arrived Sunday after an unplanned layover in Japan, which they claim was beneficial because they got to sleep! Given a day to plan a trip with them to either the Cu Chi Tunnels or the Mekong Delta, I jumped on the chance to see the Delta as that didn't make the cut for any of our weekend itineraries.

I found a great local outfit to show us the place - Sinhbalo Tours. They are a low-key operator out of HCMC. Unfortunately traffic was unusually egregious Monday it took a bit longer than expected to get to Cai Be. What would be an hour drive in the USA takes at least two here, and in our case Monday it was almost three both ways.

Once there we hopped on our bikes for a short ride to the riverfront, through a small cafe (literally - right through the middle of the tables out back to the dock) where we loaded the bikes onto the boat that would take us across the river to a cluster of islands.

If the river were land it would be a town with a name. There is a vast network of everyday life taking place here in the wide latte-colored waters. Myriad boats tied together each offering a resource - fish, fruit, bailing wire, wood... Most seem to be permanent structures with a shuttle boat tied to the back for local transportation.

After unloading the bikes at a town landing we began biking down the "road" - a sidewalk really - through the communities of Dong Phu, Hoa Ninh, An Binh, and Binh Hoa Phuoc. All on separate little islands connected by little concrete bridges. It was a great way to see island life and we received many friendly greetings from the residents.

About the time I was thinking of feeling guilty for dragging the jet-lagged Ketts on a long van ride then a few hours on a bike around an island, we reached our final destination and lunch. The restaurant was set out over the river. They brought us spring rolls, delicious local elephant ear fish which we flaked off and rolled up rice paper with vegetables, beef, pork and rice dishes. All fresh and delicious as is most of the food in this country. We all agreed that what was lacking in the day was a little more time to spend in the island. If you go, I highly recommend at least an overnight trip which would give you two days to see the river, the islands, and the mainland towns.

School Events

The ACG School has had some great student events these past few weeks. Last Thursday each class in the primary school (13 total) performed a different traditional Vietnamese Dance. Each part of the country was represented along with the specific ethnic group settled there. Clara's class performed the very dramatic rice stick dance - lots of drumbeats and flashing lights. They did an amazing job and were well choreographed.

The Middle School featured an International Day today. Parents were invited to the afternoon program. They did a great job of presenting an ecological message about how the world is all connected. We enjoyed speeches on recycling, the scarcity of fresh water, Habitat for Humanity, and two student performances: the String Zither Ensemble from the Taipei School and the Salmunori team from the Korean School.

Clara returned from her class field trip to Dalat at 4:00. They FLEW up on Monday morning, took a bus to a river, and a boat to an island campground. Day one was her least favorite - a long morning hike. The afternoon was better because she got to do abseiling (go ahead - wikipedia it - we did LOL). She describes day two as "amazing". It involved team-building activities like she did at Camp Susan Curtis with Dunn School - ropes courses, zip line, leap of faith and the like - and she got to build a raft in the afternoon! She and her team built it from 7 pieces of bamboo wood with two cross beams tied with rope. They tied big plastic jugs to the crossbeams. Then they held races - Clara's team came in second. Day three they transferred from the campground to a very nice hotel in the actual town of Dalat and did a little sightseeing at Bao Dai's Palace and the local market. We went to the Palace in August of '07 and found the architecture interesting but I'm not sure my daughter is old enough to feel the same way. The took a bus back today with several stops along the way. Silas will get his turn late in April when his class goes to Long Hoa.