The car arrived at 8:30am ready for our journey to Ben Tre in the Mekong Delta. It was a very comfortable ride and as it was a long journey that was great news. We had to drive through Ho Chi Minh City and then another couple of hours before we arrived in Ben Tre, the sat nav took us down a small road only used by motorbikes and tuk tuks so our driver phoned the hotel and got directions from them. The hotel met us on the main road with their electric buggy and transferred us to the hotel. The Mango Home Riverside. They greeted us with cold flannels and a welcome drink, we checked in and settled in our room after a tour around the grounds in the buggy. It was all so beautiful. Our bathroom was open air with our own pet gekkos 😂😂

 

A swim in the pool was a must, followed by just relaxing by the pool. The hotel was quite a way out of town so we ate in the hotel restaurant each night, the food and service was excellent.

 

The following morning we had booked a tour through the hotel. A Mango Cruise Tour along the Mekong river. The boat was an old traditional wooden boat but with touches of luxury such as comfy chairs and 2 beautiful sun loungers. This boat was just for us along with Thune our guide and Dan our Captain for the day.

 

We cruised along for about 45 minutes before we stopped off for a look at the brick making factory. There wasn’t a powered machine in sight!!

 

The bricks were made, dried in the sun for some time then stacked in large kilns by hand, there were workers in the kiln passing the bricks up 4 at a time to the top and they came out of the top as it filled before covering the top and used rice husks as fuel to fire the kilns. They worked from 7am to 11am and 1pm to 5pm each day and it’s regularly 36degrees!! Unbelievable.

We followed this with a coconut factory. It was interesting to see how they used every part of the coconut for something useful.

 

The most amazing thing was that seeing the huge pile of coconuts, these had to be split by hand individually!! A huge metal spike stood up from the ground and a man would slam the coconut onto it to split it. There were no protective gloves used, just brute force. The husks, fruit, juice and shells all used for beauty products, cooking, making candy, rope, mats, craft work and more. Back on the boat and Captain Dan is waiting with cold, wet flannels for us to freshen up. Fresh coconut opened to drink along with fresh fruits peeled and prepared by Thune.

 

Further along the river and the next time we stop there is a motor rickshaw waiting to take us for a ride around the local area. It was a little bumpy and I was happy to have the hat on provided by the tour as it kept the passing branches at bay.
We transferred to cycles and made a call to a family making coconut liqueur. It wasn’t to my taste but the locals love it. It was about 45% proof!! We saw where families come to buy their rice for cooking. There were so many types and the smallest bag weighed 5kg. We cycled along to a place for tea. Vietnamese tea laced with honey. It was so sweet. I had some without the honey and it was surprisingly lovely.

 

We then got into a small wooden boat, there were 2 ladies paddling this along the narrow waterway. They were very skilled and we were soon back at the big boat. Dan was there with fresh cold wet flannels again and cold drinks too. We headed back along the river. It was so relaxing. We chatted to our tour guide Thune and discovered she had used The Disney Channel to learn her English. She was so eager to learn more.
We arrive back at the hotel but our tour hasn’t finished yet. We took bicycles once more and followed Thune to visit a local lady in her own home.

 

Every day she makes rice papers to be sold at market. She had finished today’s batch but happily showed us how it was done and then let us have a go. I think we should leave it to the expert!! Back on our bikes and back to the hotel. The swimming pool was calling. We had a great day and it was time now to chill.

 

After another gorgeous breakfast the following morning we took a couple of the hotel bicycles once more and armed with a map we headed off to see the surrounding rice fields. It was quite a way up a busy road to start with but the instructions had been “At the temple take the second left” as soon as we did this we were on a small country road amongst the rice fields.

 

We passed local families in their homes, school children coming home from school all shouting hello and waving to us. We even saw a wedding reception with karaoke going strong. We stopped at a roadside cafe and had a bottle of water. (Yes water!!😂😂) Then we made our way back to the hotel.

We left the hotel the next morning at 10am. A car and driver took us to the airport at Ho Chi Minh City for our flight to Pnomh Penh, Cambodia. Our time in Vietnam had definitely been an adventure that we had thoroughly enjoyed. Now let’s see what Cambodia has to offer. 😀

Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.

Carol & Andy