My New #1 Dumbest Thing I've Ever Done

Saturday July 28

Today we went on a trip to the Mekong Delta. We left at 8:00 am and got to the Delta around 10:30. We caught a ferry - loosely termed - to Unicorn Island in the Delta. It was actually a nice day for the trip. Not as hot as it had been with the sun in and out. We walked through a village and went to a native bee farm, had honey tea, saw some examples of native dance and tried some interesting local fruits. Dragon fruit was one, a couple of the others I couldn't begin to pronounce.

We then walked to the next step, which was the point of the title of my post.

Formerly, the dumbest thing I think I've ever done was llama trekking. Particulary paying some llama farmer $50 to walk his llama in the rain, getting peed on by said llama and had one's llama spit on Al (although I could sort of sympathize with the sentiment because the trekking thing was his idea). Today I topped it.

We walked out of the forest in the Mekong Delta and were told that we had to get into these very low dug out canoes to get back to our boat. Carolyn went first, with Ilona in a snuggli, and then her boat took off, without us. There went our daughter, in good hands of course, down this swampy river and disappearing into the overgrowth. Then I quick got into our canoe and plopped down hoping to catch up with Carolyn and Ilona. Al stepped in next with Maia strapped to him and almost overturned the entire boat. The thing tipped completely up - since he stepped on the edge instead of on the bottom - and we were at a 45% degree angle. I can't believe he didn't fall into the river with Maia strapped to him. What on earth were we thinking? The damn boat was like an inch over the water, Maia was holding onto Al for dear life, our boats were colliding with other boats in the delta and Maia was staring at me over Al's shoulder like she couldn't believe we had been so stupid. Plus, they told us to keep our fingers in the boat because of crocodiles. Was this a joke? You've got to be kidding me? We had two babies with us. Apparently the place used to swarm with them. Anyway, how does any of that add up to something one should be doing on a Saturday morning just a couple of days after picking up your new daughters? I think Maia and Ilona would be justified in saying that they wanted to go back to the orphanage. We made it back to this docking station in the middle of the delta where we had to jump up without overturning the canoe, Al with Maia strapped to him, so that we could catch our "ferry" back to our starting point. Not the smartest thing I've ever agreed to and I think definitely beating out llama trekking.

Anyway, Carolyn got the funniest picture of Ilona looking totally disenchanted with the whole thing. We'll try to get it loaded up tomorrow.

Love Tina