Vietnamese Wedding - Day 3

Day 3 - Monday, December 13

Our third morning: same, same but different. Coffee 6:30am, breakfast 7:30am, disembark for adventure on bikes at 9:00am. Finishing another peaceful morning breakfast we boarded a "local boat" for a trip through the largest floating market of the Mekong Delta region and it's floating village in Longxuyen.



 Each boat displays what they are selling on a pole high in the air for all to see. We had fun shouting out what various fruits and vegetables we saw hanging from poles. Even though this is a wholesale market and you need to buy large quantities our guide told us we could stop by a boat of our choice to sample some goods. We chose pineapple.

Delish!

Our guide along with our captain pulled up along side a pineapple boat and we were invited to climb aboard. Here we were, sitting on a family's boat buying fresh pineapples to eat on the spot in Vietnam. Surreal! The men selected them from the hull and the ladies cut them open in a very clever way that I want to try. Do I even need to say they were amazingly sweet!

Pineapple on a stem not a stick

The family also shared their freshly baked sweet potatoes with us while our guide interpreted a very elementary conversation between our two families. We learned that the family had been selling at the floating market for 10 years and the two pineapple boats were shared by the two families present who worked together. Next they asked the ages of our boys. They burst out in laughter upon hearing that they are 9, 11, and 13. Why? I think it probably had something to do with the size of our 9, 11 and 13 year old. Sure enough that was it. They told us that their boy was 14 years old and then made him stand next to our boys for a photo. The boy looked embarrassed but his parents insisted. No boy or man, of any nationality, from anywhere in the world, likes to be made to look small, even if he is.




Boys - 14, 13, 11 and 9



We said thank you, cảm ơn, and good bye, tambiet, and boarded our little skiff that took us to Tiger Island. We biked to see the home of Vietnam's first vice-president under President Ho Chi Minh, and then became the second president. At this point our camera battery died. @#$%!@$ is what we were thinking. Later we remembered we could take photos with the iPods and the only one to bring theirs was Cameron. Most of the time I am cursing and exercising parental control over those devices because all the boys want to do is play games, but this time I was thrilled to have it along.




Cameron and his fans


From there our journey took us past houses, shops, school and daily life in this quaint island town. 15 minutes into our ride we rounded a corner just in time to see a newlywed couple emerge from the wedding ceremony. There was such a commotion in the middle of this narrow rural dirt road, we had to stop. We watched the festivities for 30 seconds before we became the center of the festivities. Some men came over to say hello and shake our hands. Others were admiring Cameron, offered their daughters in marriage for Taylor and Ryan and insisted Robert and I drink shots of homemade rice wine. We hung out for about 5 minutes and tried politely departing but they would have nothing of the sorts. They were inviting us to be the "guests of honor" at the wedding reception. They insisted!



Wedding partygoers and me. That is a thin rice paper crisp with black sesame seeds.
It was a perfect party snack.


Robert was escorted to sit a table with 10 to 12 men who all looked like they had been celebrating long before the wedding began. One by one, each man at the table toasted Robert with a shot of homemade rice wine and expected Robert to drink a shot with them. This ritual went all around the table and back again. Now Robert was nearing the same state as the men themselves and it was only 11:30am.




 While Robert was toasting his new friends we were invited to sit down at another table with a group of 20 something's. Hugs all around for Cameron, hand shakes for Taylor and Ryan, more rice wine shots offered to me and tons of food for all of us. The laughter was infecting everyone as we tried to communicate the best we could through our language differences and rice wine.

We stayed for the better part of an hour enjoying the party in our honor compliments of the bride and groom and their families. At one point even Taylor and Ryan were offered shots of homemade rice wine to which they obliged with a sip after asking Mom and Dad if it was ok. "We don't want to be rude to our hosts so go ahead boys." Glad to report they thought it tasted disgusting.




Robert's friend wanted to try on his Ray Ban sunglasses.
He didn't realize that wearing those bionic glasses would actually
impair his vision more than the rice wine. That was good for a laugh.



After spending the better part of an hour as the honored guests, our guide insisted to our generous hosts that we had to leave to catch our boat. It's a good thing too because I don't know how many more toasts Robert or I could have handled. We still had to bike back! I am confident this day will join the ranks as one of the most memorable Sheldon Family Adventures.




The men kept telling me she was to be "my new daughter-in-law
and that I "take her home". Anything for a cute American boy I guess.