Day 6 - the weekend

Woke up very early for the Mekong Delta this morning - and by early I mean all the girls were ready an hour earlier than we needed to be; we were convinced we had to be ready at 7 and not 8. The boys were right. After getting down to breakfast at 6 40 and being told we were early, we ate (the normal breakfast) and went back up to our rooms where I just sat and rested for a while. Eventually, it was time to go so we loaded up onto the bus for the 2 hour drive. I sat in the back with Mike and Matt and tried to get comfortable. All of the boys blogged but I just wanted to sleep. That proved to be impossible as the roads were extremely bumpy and we kept flying out of our seats. We made one short stop to go to the bathroom at this pretty garden place where they sold a lot of coconut products. I tried some of the milk (its warm and weird) and this weird plastic looking piece of coconut (it kind of looks like a beige fruit roll up with a plastic-ish taste). Even Andew's purple ice cream tasted like coconut. I, however, bought a can of delicious pringles. Eventually, we made it to the cacau plantation. It was, to say the least, hot. Very, very, hot.
Chocolate starts off in a completely unrecognizable form - really colorful shells of reds, oranges, yellows and greens and when you open it, a weird, slimy worm looking things comes out. It looks about as bad as it tastes. Then, the seeds are dried for a few days on the ground of this dusty, dirty warehouse in the middle of nowhere and then fermented in an outside room that smells terrible with flies everywhere. Finally, it is laid outside for the final step. It's amazing to think, however, that chocolate comes from this little warehouse in the south of Vietnam - the only one there. Nothing about it seems very clean but I guess all of that happens at the factory when the beans are shipped off. By the end of the drying step the beans did have a very faint taste of bitter dark chocolate. After all of this we saw a presentation inside a little hut that incredibly, had electricity even though it was made out of branches and looked like it could have been pulled out of the woods. It was actually very nice inside though. We then said bye to our hosts who had given an informative presentation and got back on the bus to go to lunch.
Lunch was at a beautiful little resort type place with tons of paths and water and trees. We ate outside overlooking the water and a pretty rock garden. By this time though, I was already feeling pretty exhausted and missed out on the tour given by Professor Berman. As we were served lunch, i forced myself to eat even though all i wanted was to sleep. I could barely keep my eyes open or head up but I thought caffeine from the Pepsi would be good. (Turns out, i probably should have stuck with water to stay hydrated). Luckily, we were allowed to nap on hammocks after lunch and i fell right to sleep even though i felt a little nautious. I woke up feeling worse however, and very unsteady on my feet. Elizabeth and I went to the bathroom instead of on another tour where Elizabeth ended up throwing up instead of me! Even though I felt so sick, neither of us could stop laughing - I'm not really sure why, the situation was just so ridiculous. We both made it back to the bus where I was given Andrew's pillow and the front row to lay down in. I went right to sleep and slept through the next two site visits. There was just one problem...I had drank so much water after feeling so sick that I really had to go to the bathroom, and everyone else was gone except for the bus driver who conveniently, did not speak English.
So, here I am, in the middle of nowhere (everyone else was on a tour through the jungle with fire ants) and somehow, my ipod has wifi! I quickly downloaded a free translator application and it had Vietnamese! I wrote, do you know where the bathroom is? He looked at it for a few minutes before shaking his head. I then wrote, gas station? He got out of the bus and began walking towards the tiny village next to where we were parked. He then motioned for me to follow. I was led down a long dirt path, through the middle of this little village and pointed to a stone structure built over the water. I approached it and saw that a stone plank led up to a flat stone with a whole in the middle leading into the water. Four plastic walls surrounded the stone and a roof lay a foot or two above it so that once on it, I could look out. As i pulled down my shorts while attempting to squat at the same time, I heard a loud noise behind me. I turned around to see a giant pig or hog in a pen on the other side of the thin river, watching me. Luckily, I think he was the only one around. The whole experience was incredible, real, and bizarre. As I went to the bathroom, I was able to look into the river and see fish swimming below me. I wondered whether this was the village's only bathroom, or just the public one? Amazingly, pink toilet paper was supplied. Walking back, I made sure to take in my surroundings because when else will I ever see such a real village with baby chickens wandering around, stray dogs, hammocks, huts - it was amazing to see how another culture lives - one that I hope to never forget.
I made my way back to the bus where the driver and i attempted to have a conversation but it was difficult. He said new york though and i said yes, just to make things simpler. I also tried to explain to him what my ipod was and did because he seemed curious. I wish we had been able to talk more though, I felt bad not being able to understand what he was so intent on saying to me. Also, i got on facebook for the first time since being here! After all that excitement though, I was worn out and went back to sleep until everyone got back from the tour.
Eventually I was back at the hotel and while everyone else went out to get KFC, i passed out in my bed. I knew I was sick because I'd been cold all day even though I knew I should have been just as hot as everyone else was. I bundled up in sweat pants and my zip up and fell fast asleep until Julie came in with my food. I ate a few pieces of popcorn chicken before going back to sleep, too tired to eat or sit up. Later on, Andrew woke me up, made me drink revive (which has electrolytes because they don;t have Gatorade here) and finish my chicken. I also took fever and pain reducing pills because my body, which hurt to move, was also burning up. After a while my fever broke and I eventually had the energy to shower. All of the girls decided to stay in while the boys went out with Tony and his friends to a rock show. We were all asleep by 8 15. It had been a really long day and tomorrow, we had to wake up early for the beach. I got 10 hours of sleep though!