Vietnam - The Mekong Delta adventure

Our guide said we'd need to set off early the next day as the drive to the Mekong Delta would be another 2 hours in the minibus.  I was quite happy to people watch / life watch from the windows, and made an effort to drink in the scenes that we passed, rather than catch up on snoozing or screen browsing/tablet/phone swiping.

not sure this trailer would pass our MOT - the bolt at his back had my attention....

and today's prize for the largest load on a single scooter goes to ....

glad to know I'm a Chuong Duong Tourist!

our boat for the trip... again, common sense prevails over H&S concerns

tourist with a snake

we went to the Coconut Candy factory ...

which like a lot of things in Vietnam is more or less 'open-air'.  Our hygiene inspectors would have had a field-day...

our small boy not convinced by the smell

The coconut candy itself was not unpleasant, and was available in a choice of flavours - durian, mango, chocolate, coffee, banana to name a few.  Here's a link to some web-images:  coconut candy images.

The next think they made was 'coconut crackers'.

this batter similar to coconut candy, but also similar to rice paper batter, and the process the same as rice paper...

the batter is poured and carefully spread onto muslin stretched over boiling water, a lid put over it and then steamed for 1 minute ...  (note the lady is fully covered, wearing two layers.  It was a hot day for us - 33 degrees in the shade...).

... before being carefully lifted and placed on bamboo racks

to be dried in the sun for a couple of days.

We bought some of these coconut crackers which were intended to come home with us, but didn't make it (we ate them!).  Yummy, coconut milk, sesame seeds, probably some sugar, a sort of caramel flavour in a very thin crispy biscuit-crisp.

I wasn't too sure about the animal welfare of the ponies on the ride to the stream... still I suppose they provide an income from the tourists, and they seemed hardy little things.

at this point the children haven't seen Apocalypse Now, or The Deer Hunter, or any of the Vietnam films, so this boat ride seemed innocent enough to them...

The authentic 'tourist' Mekong Delta boat ride experience

 the end of the stream

taking it easy, Mekong Delta style

semi al-fresco lunch in Mekong Delta - fried fish ready for rice paper wrap and roll

 water buffalo. Say no more.

me trying to be artistic  -  the colours of the boats were really typical.

 That's the Mekong Delta done.  Trip back to Ho Chi Minh City next time - we'll visit the Post Office, Notre Dame and then the adults went to the War Remnants Museum..

Thanks for reading,
Kat