It’s the weekend and I’m attending an organized trip with my fellow teachers: sometimes it is nice to be driven around. I’ve asked, and this is going to be more than a hop-on, hop-off, snap your Instagram photo and let’s carry on kind of a trip.
We are driven out of busy Ho Chi Minh City and into the Mekong Delta. After a bathroom break in a very dingy, dirty and small latrine where flies buzz in the air, we’re on a large, rustic river boat, sipping fresh water out of a coconut. It’s a perfect Instagram moment that I don’t catch, but I recall perfectly the breeze, the cool coconut water as it makes its way to my stomach, and best of all, the peace I feel when I’m on the water. Out of the city, on the water, green adorning the shore – out of the city, that’s where I am my best self, where my thoughts quieten, my breath slows, and I am at ease. I prop my feet on the boat’s edge and sit back.
The river is wide, but soon we float into narrower waterways, passing fishermen who expertly perch on the tip of their boats, guiding nets in and out. Even their dogs are well behaved, perfectly balancing the weight of their owners. It looks like a peaceful kind of life, but the lines on the fishermen’s faces reveal otherwise, though they aren’t hardened in anger at the life they’ve led.
The narrow roads are covered by the long arms of palm trees. As we ride, the sometimes smack me in the face, but it just make me laugh, the slap of nature just keep me alert and energized.
We stop at a small factory where coconut-rice paper is being made. Tourists cover at the sight – the workers do not wear gloves as they handle the pulp that churns through the roller, a child sits and works next to his mother, the paper is dried on the side of the road – still, I take my piece and eat it. Delicious.
Once in a while we pass a village convenience – a set of tents set up near the road’s edge. Chickens lounge under nets, waiting to be someone’s dinner, while fresh cuts of meat hang from hooks, out in the open air, glistening red.
Life is slower here.
On our way, as the engine on the boat overheats, gurgles and begins to die. The simple solution to bring it back to life is best – wet it with the cold river water until it is cool enough to run again.
