Day 11, Mekong Delta

This morning we said goodbye to our Homestay and boarded our boat to head out for some more exploring. First we went to a charcoal factory. They use coconut shells to make charcoal. They scrape the shell first and use the hairy part to make coconut coir or ropes. The shells are then loaded into a kiln and burned till they become black charcoal. The charcoal is shovelled onto a conveyor that tips it into sacks ready for transport.
We then walked round the area visiting a Buddhist temple, a local market and a place where they make little cakes and wrap them in banana leaves. The cakes are filled with either a delicious sweet coconut or a bean filling, and are coated in a green sticky kind of jelly and then wrapped up in a banana leaf so they don't all stick together and can easily be sold.
Our boat then took us back to Ben Tre, ready for the bus to take us to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).Read more