Mekong Delta Blues

Hello friends, I'm waiting for a bus to take me to another part of the Mekong Delta, so I thought I'd use the opportunity to let you know what I'm up to.
I left Saigon yesterday morning and we took a bus to My Tho. From there, we took a boat around the delta, to various islands. It was very beautiful. It's sort of like Venice, where everyone gets around in their boat. There were an unbelievable number of boats, big and small. People build their houses on stilts partially in the water. We could see people washing their clothes and such from the boat.
We got in a smaller boat and went through some smaller canals. Highlight of the day: I saw an electric blue kingfisher with a white band around it's neck. It was really cool! It was about the same size as the kingfishers in Minnesota.
We visited some cottage industries--coconut candy makers, honey producers. Today we visited a small spot where they make rice noodles. They have what look like drums with boiling water in them, they take a liquid made with rice and manioc root starches and spread it in a thin layer on the top of the drum. It cooks for a few minutes and they take it off. It looks like a crepe. Then they dry it in the sun. When it's dry, they cut it into noodles. They fuel the fires with the rice husk.
This morning we got up early to go the floating market. When the French were in power, they taxed all the business that took place on land, so people took their business to the river. They put up tall poles on the bow of the boat with fruits and vegetables hanging from them. That way, they advertise what they are selling.
Tomorrow, we are going to see some Cham weavers. I'm excited to get a look at the textile production.
I've met some nice people on the trip. They tell me that the north is much nicer than the south. I'm glad. I like it here, but am having trouble adjusting to the heat. Also, I think the north is less densely populated. There are 8 million people in a 200 km square are down here.
I met a guy from Japan on the trip who was also traveling alone. We went to dinner last night on the street and had some steamed mussels. I helped him a little with his English.
The food has been fairly good, but I haven't had my socks knocked off yet. I've had several dishes that are heavily seasoned with pepper. So much so that they are spicy. It's good. At a market today I had a crepe filled with sweetened, shredded coconut. A mixture of French and Vietnamese? Seemed like it. It was delicious. Oh, and at lunch today I tried snake. Someone else ordered it and let me try. It was very chewy and unexciting.
I hope you all are well!