I am out on my balcony overlooking the Mekong River and sitting down to a nice cold “Birds Nest.” Yup that’s a drink made from fungus grown on birds nest. No big deal. Also on the topic of food: today I added chicken butt, chicken foot, goose throat, fish fin and fish eye. Also, in case you are wondering my stomach somehow is still fine and that scares me because after eating goose throat your stomach really should not feel fine.
There is a lot to cover from the past few days so I am sure I will leave stuff out. I moved to Can Tho finally two days ago and love it so much. It was a two hour bus ride from Ho Chi Minh to Can Tho. This whole lower region is basically a swamp, a huge delta swamp with 8 main river channels feeding out into the ocean. Much of the region is flooded 100% of the years with several sections flooding solely during the rainy season. This, coupled with a warm, humid climate, results in fairly tropical conditions. Much of the city has big palms, banana trees, etc.
….and Bird’s Nest is chunky….very interesting. I guess that is the fungus bird spit nest floating around. Verdict: TBD.
The city itself is surprising. I’m staying at a guest house basically surrounded by a giant market. Every morning I go out to buckets of flopping fish, frogs hopping out of baskets, whole pigs beings cut up right there on the street and overflowing baskets of every kind of fruit imaginable. Off the back fishermen dock up and deliver the days catch right there. So crazy. You go to a market and you buy your food for the day fresh…really fresh. That brings me to bike shopping. To get around I bought a bike. Where did I go? The bike stand and they built me a bike there on the spot. Nice fixed gear, basket, light that rubs against the wheel for power and a bike lock: $65. Every stand does one thing. There is no Wal-Mart or Target. To wash my laundry it is a trip to the laundry stand (I have not tried this yet because I am not to confident in my language ability to get my clothes back just yet). Interesting fact: no washers here and the washing services do not do underwear a very critical part of clean clothes. Guess the practice washing underwear in the bathtub at school so my laundry would last until free laundry at home over a break is paying off. I managed to find laundry detergent today: 17,000 dong ($0.85). I almost got fabric softner because I couldn’t read the label =p.
Bird’s Nest is getting warm…warm chunkies not good…
I would like to address the biking situation and traffic in general. Ok Meg got a bike yay. Helmet: check. Ok now it’s a go. Suddenly I am riding with 1000s of motorbikes carrying people, chickens, boxes, etc. Things are zooming past, feathers are flying cars are honking, buses are moving. Things are crazy, really crazy. I’m just pedaling and looking forward. That is key. Always look forward. You are only responsible for what is in front of you. Never look back. To move over you do it and trust people behind you move around you. Ok, this is working. Get to an intersection and campus is a left hand turn away. This is not like any left turn I have every made. All directions of traffic go at once. That is hundreds of motorbikes from all sides and here I am on my bicycle. Eyes ahead, eyes ahead. You move. You just do it. You move into oncoming traffic and it is terrifying. Don’t stop, never stop. You have to keep the same pace and it works. It is beautiful. You get back covered in exhaust, sweaty, pull off a couple of feathers and it is good. Never ceases to amaze me!
That is about enough for now. As an update had my first language class = SOOOOO hard. The tones are killing me. Today I went to a floating market and bought a pineapple. Also took a boat to a fruit orchard and had lunch with Vietnamese student volunteers. Here they grew pineapple, limes, dragon fruit, milk apples, jackfruit, mangos, papaya and maybe something I am forgetting. Gorgeous.
Klaus says hi!! Oh, and Bird’s Nest is ½ gone. This is going to be tough. =)
Klaus on the balcony
Klaus and a Jackfruit =)
Hi Megan! I guess things worked out with your visa! I'm excited to hear that you've got yourself a fixed gear bike - how do you like it? Glad to hear as well that your stomach is holding up well with the new, unique foods. Sounds like you're having an awesome time!
ReplyDelete- Jason =)