Over the last few days, we've done a ton of things. Lots of traveling by bus. For me that means a little bit of time for journaling, a little bit of time for taking photos out the bus window, and a lot of time for napping. And while our bus is quite comfortable, I'm looking forward to tomorrow's flight that will at least give us a small break from being on a bus.
So far we've been to a community center, program for blind children, Cu Chi tunnels, a floating market, and one government-run orphanage. Soon we'll be to the House of Love (Brittany's Hope), where we will have a few days with the kids. We've been able to see a lot of things so far, which is good, but everything has been very scheduled, leaving little free time or time to relax/get to know your surroundings. I don't really feel like I've gotten a good grasp of Vietnamese culture or society yet, and I really hope to have at least a little feel for it before we leave.
To get to Can Tho we had to drive for several hours. It was worth the drive, though. We ate dinner along a river and walked around a little bit as a group, going briefly through a night market of clothing. The next morning we were out of the hotel at 5:30 and walked back down to the dock to board a boat that would take us down the river and through two floating markets (one wholesale and the other fruits). We all got to try some durian at the second. From there we stopped at a fruit plantation/tourist area and walked through before sitting down for a morning snack of water apples, papaya, pineapple, dragon fruit, and a few others. We then got to eat at the hotel for breakfast, which had no vegetarian options. Oh well. On our way back to HCMC we stopped at a state-run orphanage in Ben Tre. It was very different than what a lot of people expected, and somewhat difficult to see the poor conditions. We spent about 2 hours there with the kids before making the drive back.
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