Day 22: Mekong Delta

Today we went to the Mokong Delta, which is the region where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries.

We took a boat trip to one of the islands, where we visited a few villages, to one of these villages we reached by horse:

We were brought to a place where we were served tea with local honey and some sort of cocount-covered peanuts (very tasty).

In the same place there was also a giant snake that everyone could take a photo with (I passed... I don't like snakes).

And afterwards we went on a boat trip back to the next village:

In the last village we met a family that makes coconut candy. At first they grind the coconuts into powder:

Then they put the powder in this machine that separates the coconut oil and milk:

Then they boil the coconut milk: (they use the coconut shells to keep the fire alive - there's coconut oil in the shells so it keeps the fire burning for a long time)

After the coconut milk boils (I think they sugar and some stuff when they boil it) they create long stripes of the candy, cut them into cubes and put in boxes:

They also combine the candy with peanuts, chocolate, banana and more.

After the villages we went on the ferry ride to the hotel. On the way to the ferry we got stuck in traffic jam, so the bus driver just went into the other lane (in the other direction of the traffic...) and passed like a hundred trucks waiting to get on the ferry:

View from the ferry:

Remember in the previous posts when I said they use the motorbikes to transport all sorts of stuff, well this is an example of what I meant: