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Are you willing to get out of your comfort zone? That can be a good thing on vacation.

Whether you try an unfamiliar cuisine, push yourself to climb a mountain or navigate a new city where you don’t know the language, you will build confidence guaranteed to help next time you face a challenge.

It can be scary. I was terrified as I hung on to Mr. Su, a Vietnamese man in his 60s or 70s, on the back of his motorbike as we weaved through traffic in Ho Chi Minh City, dodging cars, buses and other motorbikes down tiny alleys, across bridges and main roads, neon lights winking. It was a Saturday night, and it seemed much of the city was out and about.

The 12 passengers on our CroisiEurope Toum Tiou II adventure cruise were being treated to a Vespa Adventures nighttime ride and food tour through the city that included Hun Hanh Phue Vu Qui Khak for seafood and “jumping chicken” – grilled frog. At the popular Oc Ghee restaurant, we could watch women preparing the huge Vietnamese fried pancakes that were stuffed with meat and veggies and then wrapped with greens, rolled in edible rice paper. Tasty, but messy.

Croisi Europe operates five vessels in the region but ours offers the most unique and adventurous experience. Toum Tiou II can carry just 28 passengers as compared to 60 on their premium ship RV Indochine II. As we traveled on the Mekong River from Cambodia to Vietnam there were options to bike, ride Tuk Tuks powered by motorbike, hike, kayak, visit remote villages, including the famous floating villages that move with the seasons. The cabins were tiny but air conditioned and the spacious sun deck was a pleasant place to unwind after a day touring in the heat.

There were more crew than passengers. We had one guide for the six English speakers and one for the French. It felt more like a private trip than a traditional river cruise and a trip totally out of my comfort zone.

The Mekong flows more than 3,000 miles through six countries – China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The economies of the many towns and villages on its banks depend on fish and water to irrigate their farms and rice paddies.

This is the rice bowl of Vietnam and we saw many local farmers loading their rice onto boats for processing. Southern Vietnam produces three rice harvests per year, compared to only one in the hillier terrain of northern Vietnam.

One day, we stopped in the city of Chau Doc where locals were making offerings at the famous Ba Chua Xu Temple – everything from fruit baskets to barbecued pork to the Lady God, praying for fertility and prosperity. That afternoon, an elderly Vietnamese man rowed us through a narrow canal, past gorgeous pink lotuses with birds nesting in trees. We spotted dozens of herons, egrets, cormorants and many other species that we couldn’t readily identify.

Vietnam’s section of the delta is home to some 17 million people and provides more than half of the country’s food crops. Consider that rice has been harvested here since the first century AD, with the fields providing enough rice to feed more than 300 million people.

The local population eats more than 500,000 tons of fish a year and at the local market we saw fermented fish, salted fish drying in the sun and fresh fish, as grandparents shopped for their multigenerational home.

The heat and humidity gave us something of a feel for how miserable it must have been for soldiers on both sides of the long U.S. military involvement in South Vietnam more than half a century ago.

Our last full day in Ho Chi Minh City we visited the central city where, after the fall of Saigon in April 1975, lines of Vietnamese were waiting to board helicopters on the roof of the U.S. Embassy. Today, a sign “landing zone” was all that was left of the landmark. That deeply unpopular war cost more than 58,000 U.S. lives and more than 150,000 injuries. It’s estimated that nearly a million Vietnamese were killed and injured.

So much has changed here. Today, Ho Chi Minh City is a bustling metropolis with high-rise apartment buildings, luxury shops, hotels and traffic – so much traffic. Kids are anxious to chat up foreigners to improve their English.

We toured the Presidential Palace where the Viet Cong famously crashed through the gate in tanks. The reunification was April 30, 1975, when the South Vietnamese government surrendered and that date is celebrated annually here with great fanfare.

At the sobering War Remnants Museum we learned the cost of the war to civilians, as well as soldiers from both sides. Attracting some 500,000 visitors a year, it’s one of the most visited sites in the entire country and shouldn’t be missed.

One powerful exhibit showcases not only the photographs of combat news photographers that contributed to the antiwar movement in the U.S. but also details how at least 63 and possibly more than 100 photographers died during the Vietnam War between 1955-1975. They included photographers for Life, Associated Press and United Press International. Some of the photographs were from film retrieved from their cameras after they were killed.

Our last night we spent at the FusionSuites hotel where a massage was included in our stay. We loved the extraordinary photos of locals that decorate the lobby, hallways and the room. Behind the reception desk there is a beautiful photo of an elderly Vietnamese woman and these words written in large letters – “We don’t care if you are black, white, short, tall, fat, skinny, rich, or poor. We will embrace you as one of our own.”

Dinner is burgers at the hotel – back in our comfort zone.

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(For more Taking the Kids, visit www.takingthekids.com and also follow TakingTheKids on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments. The fourth edition of The Kid’s Guide to New York City and the third edition of The Kid’s Guide to Washington D.C. are the latest in a series of 14 books for kid travelers published by Eileen.)

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