As we got our feet under us in Ho Chi Minh, we slowly learned how to cross 6 lane roads packed full of motorbikes and eating on plastic stools in the street became the norm, but we wanted to start to branch out, learn more about the food, language and culture. Airbnb has "experiences" that we have looked at doing and tried one in Singapore but seemed perfect in Ho Chi Minh as it was hard to even know where to begin in this huge city.  
The first trip was a 4 hour street food tour on motorbikes.  Right on time, three delightful students showed up at our apartment and suddenly instead of fighting the motorbikes, we were one with them, part of the river of traffic navigating in and out of the mass of humanity.  Frog, mango salads, sweet beef, blended soup, lotus flower tea; the night was a colorful blend of flavors, places, and experiences. At one point Isabelle was drinking this sweet drink full of fruit and roots, seeds, seaweed, and other non-identifiable plants and she looked at me and said, "we have come along way, I use to have to know what I was putting in my mouth, I have no idea what any of this is, but it is good." Yes, we have my dear.
The next day we did a full day tour of the Mekong Delta via bike and kayak, partially to see if we wanted to commit to a long bike trip with the girls.  We chose a tour that touted "we don't go where tourist usually go" and he was right. It was a delightful day through the guide's village area, through canals on a kayak, floating markets and biking through towns on these little paths only suitable for walking, biking and motorbiking. It was such a different experience of the Ho Chi Minh and the surrounding Delta and the guide so great, we talked to him after the trip about setting up biking to Cambodia, which he agreed to do.  One thing I have really enjoyed about Airbnb is you can stay in places and do things without huge masses of tourist and in this case meet an amazing guide who dropped his other tours for the week and biked with us to Cambodia.
The last tour we did was a "sidecar to the Cu Chi tunnels and farming cooking class."  The sidecars were a traditional method of transportation in Vietnam before the population boom after the war and a fun way to see the countryside.  More about the tunnels in the next blog, but the cars paired with the cooking class was a totally different and again great way to get to know a different side of life and what really is in all that crazy food we were eating.
Slowly we are learning our way around this new country and a new culture.