An Binh Island

We are spent today and tonight at a home-stay (think bed and breakfast with lunch and dinner) on An Binh Island in the Mekong Delta. You can see the name 'song Co Chien' in the lower left corner of the land mass in the middle of the screen. That is about where we are.

How we came to actually get on a bus is the topic of another post but we did have some fun along the way to Vinh Long where we would ferry to An Binh Island. While enroute, and about 20 minutes from when we were supposed to get off the bus in Vinh Long, it pulled into a rest area. Some folks were getting off, some were staying on. I Made some noises to the driver that I was hoping meant "What is going on?". He made an eating motion with his hands to mouth, not like eating a hamburger but with virtual chopsticks.

So we de-bused, bath roomed and grabbed some drinks. When we went outside the rest stop the bus was nowhere to be seen. Then began the wondering if we understood what chopsticks to the face meant. I was careful to note that folks getting off had left bags on and deduced that their departure was to be temporary. The next challenge was to figure out which big orange bus was ours. A few more questions later and a conversation with a young American from Ann Arbor who was just finishing up two years of teaching in Vietnam in the Delta had us on the right track to finding our magic bus. He reassured us that we would not be left behind by telling us that a bus once turned around to pick him up after it departed without him.

Todays bus offered still more opportunities to see a bit of Vietnam as we zoomed (sometimes not so fast) by? I saw a farmer plowing his field with an old road grader. When there is so little to begin with, very few things seem to go unused and applied regardless of their designed purpose. I also saw thousands of hammocks in little rest areas all the way from Saigon to the Mekong. Our home-stay was also well stocked with hammocks.

Patti is chilling in front of our door. We are actually staying in a traditional open air dormitory which is an authentically southern Vietnamese. A few nights ago when we had the bug invasion where we only had to defend the crack under the door, here the walls do not attach to each other and the roof has a one foot gap above the walls.

We went for a ride on our little section of this big island and crisscrossed over canals and would hang on tight as we rode narrow strips of pavement while passing motorbikes. Riley was riding on the back of my bike and was getting very nervous with how close we needed to get to the edge of the concrete. I was telling her we will do our best and God has the rest. She said I better ask Him to make room for us in heaven the next time we have to pass a scooter.

My bike. I picked a winner. Not to far along and the left crank started to fall off. O every 10 revolutions I would do my best to kick it back in. Took a rock to it on several occasions and it got me back home.

We stopped at a non-profit designed to give local island women some artistic skills and earn a small income. The girls were each able to help in the binding of a journal and also used some of their money (I told them I would match 50% of the purchase price because the proceeds went to a non-profit) to buy one each. Tara took advantage of the dress up photo opportunity.

The girls and I were able to join a pick up game of shuttlecock (there is a more official name) and I actually did not embarrass myself but surprised them. However, the guys I saw in Hanoi bicycle kicking this thing over the net volleyball spike style would destroy me. I played soccer for 15 years but never much got into the hackie sack. This is like half hackie and half badminton. It was a lot of fun, I need to see if I can get one to take home.

Tara had a cola earlier in the day from the big honor fridge. I think she liked logging her coke in the book more then she enjoyed drinking it. After dinner Riley had remembered that Tara had a drink earlier and wanted one herself. When Mom told her that it was a 'buy it yourself' her response was "Mom, I have 300 dollars. There are saving moments and spending moments. This is a spending moment."

We had dinner at a cozy table just outside our door.

We had a cooking class under the watchful eyes and bug eating tongues of the geckos in the outdoor kitchen, not to mention the cooks. We rolled spring rolls and made a rice flour crepe of sorts and left the rest of the cooking to the pros. The kids never had fish like this.

Last night we were freezing in our air conditioned hotel room snuggled under the covers. Tonight we sweat under our bug nets, nearly naked, enjoying our first night in the Mekong Delta.

All images in the 2014 An Binh Island album.