Mekong Delta

Jean writes:

Today's array of breakfast dishes was as tempting and diverse as yesterday's - fresh fruit, cereals, breads, rolls, pastries, salads, hot food, cold food, Western style and Vietnamese style.  A veritable feast.

It was another early start as we met at 08:00 before setting off for the Mekong Delta.

The route through Chinatown was fascinating, but the first stop was the Cao Dai Temple in honour of the "highest Lord". The exterior was beautiful but the interior was stunning.  This religion apparently brings together Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. There are various representation of the "Divine Eye" or the eye of God, which sees everything.

Next stop was for a rest break at a rather ordinary looking building from the outside, but behind were some lovely gardens and water features, both with beautiful plants and flowers and some interesting organic models of local people.

Tam's next treat was for "hammock coffee". It's just as it sounds, customers can relax on hammocks while being served coffee!

Ben Tre is a sizeable, bustling city, and apparently was the home of the Viet Cong in colonial times.  The river hugs one side of the city and we visited a brick-making set-up, where we saw all processes, from digging the local clay, through moulding it into appropriate shapes, drying them, and then stacking the  bricks in kilns, all by hand, despite the topmost bricks being a good four metres high.  Apparently someone climbs to the top and a the bricks are raised on a rudimentary conveyer belt. The kilns are then fired with rice husks which, after burning are returned to the farmers as fertiliser for their land.

A sampon was waiting for us to transport us past a large number of fisherman on and around the banks, with many different forms of nets and cages.  The area is also known for coconuts and we saw masses of shells and fibres waiting to be taken away for other people to make into useful products before stopping off at a coconut candy workshop.

The trip along the river was interesting and relaxing until we came to go ashore again.  The landing area was unsafe, so we had to "walk the plank"!  Most people managed without difficulty, but my balance isn't as good as it was, so Tam made sure he held on to me with both hands! An interesting experience! 

We walked to a house where three generations of women were weaving mats from local organic fibres.  The youngest has just finished trading as a teacher and is helping out while she waits to be offered a job. 

A motorised tuk tuk transported us to our lunch venue, along narrow lanes and paths.  Once again, the meal was super - chicken, shrimps, a variety of vegetables, pineapple, rice, noodles and .... the jewel of the whole thing, elephant ear fish! 

A canoe returned us to the sampon, which fortunately was in a different location, so no plank walking! 

The minibus returned us to HCM City after another long, but enjoyable and varied day.

Dave writes:

I became a millionaire on our first morning here and continue to be one. 
the Vietnamese currency - the Dong - is worth 30,000 to the pound so my initial ATM withdrawal of around £70 from a cash point in the splendour of the main Post Office in fact made me a double millionaire. 
Ding Dong merrily on high until reality of course kicks in with a Twix bar at 25,000. a bottle of house wine at 480,000 and our first meal out coming in at 950,000. 
Still it was nice while it lasted !