Ben Tre, Vietnam – AM - Mekong Delta River Cruise – Day 2

March 22 - A.M.

I’m splitting this post into A.M. when we visited Ben Tre and P.M. when we visited Can Tho.

This morning, we boarded sampans that took us through a channel lined with mangroves.

water coconuts

We walked through the village to visit an orchard to see fruits native to Vietnam in various stages of maturity. Unfortunately, it really wasn't the season for most fruits and we have seen many of these fruits before, so didn't take many photos here.

our guide, Nam (rhymes with MOM)

water coconuts

cemetery

the yard where we waited for the others to finish

the roosters in the cages are used for cock fighting

Then we jumped on one of most popular local transportation named “xe lam” (three-wheeler) and visited a local coconut candy maker. They showed us each step of making the candy and explained that all parts of the coconut are used. What isn’t used to make the candy can be made into items and the rest become ground for cattle feed. The candies also can have other flavors added to them such as Durian, Cocoa etc. We bought some of the Cocoa coconut candies.

our next mode of transportation

our driver

walking to the candy factory

showing items made from the coconut shells

opening the coconut on a spike

extracting the water

squeezing out the milk

grating the meat

heating the candy ingredients

candy tasting

rolling out the candy

cutting into slices

cutting into individual pieces

hand wrapping the candies

we bought the cocoa coconut candies

still

items for sale

snake wine

scorpion wine

snake wine

After watching the candy-making process, we continued to a pier where we boarded small, local boats for a trip through the narrow creeks lined with Nipah palms or Mangrove palms aka Water Coconuts. We had never seen one of these spiky looking fruits before. It is the mangrove counterpart of the coconut palm. Very interesting to see.

Greg getting into the boat

water coconuts

Greg in the front

our guide on the boat

disembarkation point

water coconut

hen with chicks in the yard where we waited for the rest of the group

roosters for cock fighting

walking back to our vehicle

this little cutie came to greet the group

We were in a boat with another couple from Australia and all they saw was the rubbish along the route. We have learned to look past those things and just enjoy the serene beauty of the experience.

We had a fresh fruit tasting on the sampan on the way back to the Mekong Princess.

After lunch, we spent the rest of our time out on deck watching life along the Mekong.

For larger photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/98eBAfLB9UubSfhE6