Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
DAY SEVENTEEN
The one day TNK Travel tour was today's activity, casually meandering around the famous Mekong Delta in a mixture of boat craft, ranging from a large junk down to a rowboat for the smaller arterial rivers. Still disappoints me that even though thousands of tourists visit these places of interest daily, the levels of littering is incredible.
We had lunch ( if that's what you call it) at Turtle Island, and quite apt for what happened to my stomach after consuming it! I'll spare the details.
We then visited an island that is built around various businesses - honey making, crocodile farming, fruit growing and coconut processing. Everyone, from 2 year olds to crusty grandparents all work in readily hard - their work ethic is tremendous.
We had a taste of the honey straight from the comb...good grief that was tasty stuff! Apparently they import their own honey all over the world, but I would expect after their import company is finished swallowing the profits they probably don't earn a great deal.
The coconut processing was interesting, as they use every part of the coconut for a wide range of products. Their main product is a fudge like coconut based sweet, which contains varied flavours such as vanilla, passion fruit, chocolate and ginger. We watched them make it, from de-juicing and grounding the coconut flesh, to making the caramel to individually wrapping each sweet. No big machines or procession lines here - just an open shed with a palm branch room. Other products they make are lip balm ( tasty), coconut wine, soaps, shampoos, moonshine ( yarppp, it was strong) to liqueurs ( which apparently is a Vietnamese traditional drink, which features a once living baby cobra with a scorpion in its mouth). I have always wondered how people manage to get these varying objects in small bottles such as full scale tall ships to now cobras! The other question is who decides that they are going to do this as a career? I may google this phenomena.
The afternoon consisted of eating fruit and listening to traditional Mekong music. The instruments that they use are not like anything I've seen before. They are all based around strings, but there are different ways that the sounds are produced such as one instrument which was kind of like a steel guitar ( but it was wooden - laid on the players lap!) where the player slides his fingers on the incredibly tight strings, then has a wah wah lever which makes a reverberating noise. Very cool.
Just to make sure that we had enough souvenirs, we were led off the island through another souvenir shop. These guys will sell anything, anywhere, anytime. There is a few call centres around the world which would benefit from their employment..they persist and persist.
- comments