snake, in retrospect

We took a two-day venture in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam. If you don’t really know where that is, you’ll have to look it up because I have no idea either. What I do know is that it seems to rain a lot there, boating down the river is lovely, and there are a number of floating markets there. The floating markets are a lot like what I imagine a redneck yacht club would. The boats in the river raft up with each other as each boater has need to sell or buy the goods of the others. I bought a pineapple which the lady selling it cut these swirly ridges into. It was so delicious Each alerts the others to what he or she is selling by suspending the product from a bamboo stick on the boat. They were mostly selling fruit and produce. Every boat has a set of eyes painted on the front of it. The eyes are meant to keep alligators away.

I drank jasmine tea with honey and a small citrus fruit squeezed into it, which was absolutely delicious. I saw the process for making coconut candies and ate one of the coconut toffees while it was still hot. I probably will never be able to eat anything with fake coconut flavoring again because this stuff was the real deal. I saw how  rice paper is made which involves mashing up rice to get what they call rice milk and then mixing it with tapioca starch and steaming that mixture for a minute or two. It kinda looks like making a giant, white crepe. After the rice paper is dried, they run it through this machine that slices it all into rice noodles.

In our travels, I have met people from all over the world: Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Colombia, Ireland, England, and even one American. I’m learning about the company and generosity of travel. Everyone seems to want to talk with everyone else and share his or her own life with others. We learn about each other’s countries and cultures while experiencing that of Vietnam. Everyone shares what they buy with others in this communal exchange. I shared my pineapple, and Jonathan from Colombia shared his snake wine with pretty much everyone traveling through the Mekong in our group. Snake wine is rice liquor that is held in a jar with a couple dead snakes. The Vietnamese think that is you house fierce creatures in the alcohol it makes it stronger.

For breakfast yesterday, we were in Can Tho and I ordered bread and cheese. I was brought the standard baguette roll and two wedges of The Laughing Cow cheese. There are advertisements for The Laughing Cow all over the place, which seems to be a funny thing to have in common with Vietnam. One thing we don’t have in common with Vietnam is that Vietnam doesn’t have a single McDonald’s. Apparently, McDonald’s refused to use Vietnamese beef in their production, so Vietnam wouldn’t let them it. This is quite alright with me because I don’t like McDonald’s.

I was trying to be adventurous yesterday for lunch, so I ordered snake with onions. Snake is brought out as long strips of meat. It’s very tough, which makes sense because I don’t think of snakes as particularly fatty. Maeve ordered frog legs, and I tried some of that too. Snake, in retrospect, could have been what caused me to feel excessively nauseated for the rest of the day. Then again, that could have been car sickness from the bus, the snake wine, the pineapple cute with a less-than-clean knife. In any case, I got lasagna for dinner at a French restaurant. It was delicious, and I knew that I could eat it.

I will leave you with this: you know how I feel about a man in a sweater vest.