Vietnam Day 2: For What It's Worth

We got up early to take a guided tour of the Mekong Delta, which would take most of the day. We got picked up by a van at the hotel and headed over to a town called My Tho, which was about a 2-hour drive from the city. After that we got in the first of many boats that morning.

Our first stop was Phoenix Island, where we were given a sampler of local fruits to eat while a group of local folk musicians performed a brief 4-5 song set. They closed out with a cover of Auld Lang Syne, my guess is so that the tourists would hear them perform at least one song they were familiar with.

After that we got into canoes paddled by two people (one in front, one in the back) that took us through this tiny canal crowded with traffic going in both directions. This portion of the trip lasted maybe about 15 minutes but it was amazing to travel and see how these people do every day. They took us out to the river and we were back on the boat for the next stop - another hamlet named Ben Tre, where they have their own beehives which they used to make a variety of honey-based products, including tea and wine, which we were given to try. We also posed for pictures with a 5-foot python.

We headed back to the river and eventually made our way back to My Tho, where we got back on the van and headed back to the city. We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and headed for the Ben Tranh market, where we all split up and headed our separate ways to explore for the afternoon.

A few hours later, we met up for drinks at the rooftop bar of the Rex Hotel. The Rex Hotel is a place of significance to both the journalism and the PR students on the trip. It was a popular meeting spot for official and unofficial business for US officials and journalists during the war, and was the location of the now famous military press briefings that were later dubbed the "Five O'Clock Follies."

After that, we headed back to the hotel, got some rest, and then headed out to a dive bar somewhere in the city called Guns n' Roses for an evening of drinking and pool. None of us brought cameras on this, but there are two painted murals on the walls, one of the Appetite for Destruction era lineup of the band, and another just of Axl Rose.

The title is from the famous Buffalo Springfield song, which is one of the songs most associated with the Vietnam War era and has appeared in various Vietnam movies over the years.