Mekong Delta

The Mekong river is the 14th longest river in the world. It starts in Tibet and flows through Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. I've been wanting to see the delta for some time, mainly because of the size of the river and because I have never seen the end of a river in real life.

We packed onto a bus, although we were told 20 people on the tours (same as Northern Vietnam) it was easily 45 people (so a Vietnamese 20!). The trip to the delta is around 1.45 hours from the city. The tour guide was great, spoke great English and gave good information. The delta provides good farming conditions because of the silt deposited by the river, helping make Vietnam the second largest producer of rice in the world (they export over 85% of the harvest).

On arriving to Ben Tre we were welcomed with Jasmine tea and a plate of fresh fruit (dragon, papaya, finger banana & pineapple) and 'enjoyed' traditional folk music. It was a bit hard to follow and a bit messy in rhythm at times.

Next we took a small rowing boat to a site producing coconut candy. None of the raw material is wasted, using the husks to make rope and mixing it with some fruits to make a natural mosquito repellant. The candy is handmade and you watch then making it. As you would expect there was the chance to buy some at the end, I now possess some ginger flavoured coconut sweets which are actually quite good but you have to eat the rice paper that's wrapped around it as it's stuck so it becomes a little annoying after having a few at the same time.

At the same site they also produce honey. I had some jasmine tea flavoured with honey and lime, I would recommend that you all try this at home.

We took a boat journey down the Mekong to get lunch, before heading back to HCMC via a pagoda. I didn't see the end of the river so this is still on my to see list.

I had brought and gifted Tash a Valentines day rose the night before, as we decided we would try and watch a movie to break up the noodle eating and temple counting. It turned into being a eventful uneventful journey. We got a cab over to the cinema, housed within a very large mall. Having not eaten we gave into the idea of KFC for quickness. I ended up waiting 10/15 mins for part of my order that never came and we had to cancel. So it can be said that Andy King did eat half a KFC in Vietnam but I'm not sure that counts unless I had it all? We made our way up to the cinema only to find 'The Nut Job' was sold out and there wasn't really anything else to see. Maybe this is one of the reasons I don't really watch films!

Temple count: 54
Noodle count: 11
Hours travelled: 55.5