From Ho Chi Minh City to Ben Tre

In the morning hours I visited the  Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts with a German Woman who also stayed it Ms Yong's homestay. The museum consists of multiple buildings of which the main building was very well maintained. They're all real masterpieces of art nouveau. The staircases, the original elevator, the chandeliers, and the painted windows are all very impressive. We visited the exhibitions of ancient contemporary art, as well as of modern art. Lots of Buddhas and other gods which to be completely honest I couldn't quite distinguish from statues of prayers.

The main building was constructed by a French architect Rivera between 1929 and 1934 as a villa for the Hua family. The museum moved there in 1987 (Wikipedia).

Back in the homestay I organized my stuff and checked out. Ms Yong was so kind to communicate my departure with the bus company. It was a door to door service which worked surprisingly well! A xe om picked me up. This was a little surprising because I had a big and a small backpack with me. But problem solved by the experienced driver who took my big backpack between his legs. I was wearing the small one on my back and we were good to go. The xe om took me to a market, one shop of which functioned as a bus stop. I write "bus stop" but actually even the eyes of an experienced traveller might not be able to recognize it as such. I gave them the address of my homestay in the Mekong Delta. They didn't really speak English but that was not a problem. Two hours later a xe om picked me up from the main road in Ben Tre and took me to the homestay.

The place is really cool. It's a family house with additional small bungalows around on the lot. They have dogs, and cats (both not for consumption). They farm chickens, turkeys and fish, they cultivate lots of vegetables, they hardly must buy any food. All of these of course free range, organic, and of the highest quality. There is a central place with tables and chairs to eat and socialize with the hosts and other guests. Lots of coconut, rambutan, jackfruit, durian and banana trees. So if I order a coconut to drink Y (pronounced Ee) is climbing up the tree, picks a nice coconut, and cuts it for me. I can also pick the chicken I would like to eat for dinner... It's not easy though...

I ate elephant ear fish for dinner, which is a traditional dish of the Mekong Delta.

The "bus stop":

At the Ben Tre homestay:

Fish is being prepared:

Good neighbors: