Actually were at Na Tranh... 2nd day and waiting for the motorbike, but will get to that at another time.
Left HCMC early to go to our homestay on the Mekong Delta... Did take some photos before my camera died..so will upload later..
Our first stop was for lunch, which was in the middle of the jungle.. No signs on the roadside at all. If you didn't know it was there you would have been lost completely... Our guide showed us the various produce that grows naturally in the verdant mekong delta. Cocoa beans, coconuts, jackfruit, and on and on and on... We were treated to a local delicacy of elephant ear fish.. Although it's readily caught, it is extremely popular with the chinese and so most of them are exported.. very sweet, light tasting, white fleshed fish..
On route to our homestay, we visited a coconut candy factory.. Talk about labour intense.. The sugar is melted / caramelised over an open fire.. The resulting toffee is then poured onto tables where a women mixes, and kneads the toffee until it's the right consistency, another then grabs handfuls and puts them into wooden molds to make it the right thickness, and then another grabs these, and on a wooden cutting board, cuts them into "same same but different" lengths. One room has machines to wrap and another room has women to wrap the candy.. There was a wee child about 2 - 3 years old helping his mother put the finished wrapped candy into boxes..
After that we went to a brick factory, where they make.... Bricks... The rice husks are used as fuel to cook the bricks...clay from the rice fields are put into to moulds to make the bricks...then when the process is over the used rice husks are used as fertiliser back onto the rice fields....brilliant!!
Then it was off to visit a salt factory...they get coarse salt and they burn it using charcoal and then whiten it, to create the fine salt.
Further along the Mekong we went, and because of the large amount of rain it meant a quick transfer onto a smaller boat...chairs included of course and as we sailed gracefully down, we approached a bridge...panic and amusement ensued as our guide told us to hit the deck. Lost again in translation we all thought he meant duck... so we were looking around for them... he really really really meant deck... 6inches to spare between our heads and the bridge.. .. Chairs went flying, people went flying and I'm sure there were a number of people with toes stuck in unmentionable places... Talk about a crack up.. (for one that was literal but pleased to say, not us!)... The homestay was deep in the delta, and only approachable by boat... at least that's what we all thought, until we landed, and the guide said.. Now we take a bike through the village and see the locals.. The bastards could have parked the bus on the side of the road and we could have had a gentle stroll instead of close decapitation... fun though... Did we mention the traffic before?? Riding along the Mekong on 3ft wide paths with bicycles, motorbikes, the proverbial cylcos (what's with that in the freakn jungle??) very very close calls...I did get very familiar with a particular coconut tree.. Lots of hugging, and bugger the bike.. Children everywhere, "Hello" "Whats your name?" gorgeous kids...
Visited a house that makes mats for sleeping and had a turn... apparently it takes them 4 hours to make one mat... Our guide said it would take me 2 days at the rate we went... They then offered us fresh fruit from the Mekong... Point to note, if there are sour fruit, it's best eaten with chilli salt.. (this is made by finely chopping chilli's, garlic and then mixing it with salt) dip the fruit into and enjoy.. they were right... was yummy... (Moo moo, I expect you to have a go before I get home!!). Back to the homestead where we had a dinner, a concert put on by the locals, and then the proverbial rice wine... Spiders bigger than the tarantulas but not edible, walking fish, snakes, rats, fire ants and kazillions of mozzies... Loved it...
We all slept well that night...
I got up early and went for a bike ride... They say riding one is like falling off one... which I did many many times... Also managed to get myself lost, and if it wasn't for the 3 old men, one of which judiciously put out his cane in front of me to stop me... (I don't think his intention was to make me go head over arse- at least I hope not!) which I did.. Then had a mime competition.. how do you explain you come from NZ to people who can not speak english.. drew a map of our country (they thought it was sleep mask), tried to do a haka (ok that went down like a bomb!), in the end just sat, smiled and nodded... they kept grabbing my hands, I thought it was because it was larger and softer than all of theirs.. Went I finally made it back to the homestead (after many many wrong turns - Ok you try finding your way through a jungle) the guide said they were probably fortune tellers... Bugger, wonder what they were trying to tell me.. I suspect it was something like... Don't ride bikes.. bad for head and bottom.... If so they were right.. kept looking down for the trail and completely missed the branches of the trees.. that's ok, the branches found me...
The next day we left, and went to Cu Chi tunnels, but will update later, there is a small man with a smaller bike sitting outside looking quite disconcerted... Not half as disconcerted as us though.
Later Tutu and Dudu.
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