Ben Tre, Mekong Delta

I’m not sure why I decided to go to Ben Tre. It’s not a spot that tourists typically go. I found some good reviews for Oasis Hotel owned by a Kiwi and thought it would be neat to go to a smaller town in the Mekong Delta where maybe we could rent some bikes to see the countryside.  Ian arranged $5 bus tickets for the short 1.5 hour ride and off we went. The small minivan that served as a bus was fine and the ride uneventful. Ben Tre was far larger than I had imagined, so much for being in a small town! We were dropped off and then loaded into taxis to be taken to the hotel – all part of the ticket price.

The Oasis was located on the other side of the river so it was quiet (except of course for the roosters). This is a view of the hotel from the river – you can see that Ken, the owner, is an All Blacks fan.

Phuong, one the staff, showed us our room and later we were greeted by Ken. His family was visiting for the xmas holidays so he was a busy guy. The hotel wasn’t anything special – it was clean, rooms spacious and had a pool. I never used it though as a family with 4 children took over the entire place. I kid you not. There was an area with hammocks and tables and chairs but this family of 6 spread out and took over everything, leaving us to eat our breakfast off to the side; very awkward.

But I am jumping ahead. First order of business for us was lunch. Phuong told us about a restaurant close by and we headed down a narrow cement path into the bush. It was hard to believe this would lead us to a restaurant but it did indeed. Lunch was disappointing and an average price. We took a different route back to the hotel and at this point, Ian wasn’t feeling so great so he napped and I met with Phuong to learn about some tours.

After having a not so great trip on the Mekong, I decided to book a trip along the canals and tributaries of the Mekong and skip the biking. The tour would include an English guide, lunch, all transfers, etc. and it would just be Ian and I.  So the next morning after an okay breakfast (no juice or fresh fruit – eggs, eggs or eggs) we met our guide and walked 50 metres down the road to where we boarded our boat.

Boarding boats has become something Ian and I have done all too frequently and the manner of boarding has taken all forms. This one involved walking along a narrow board stretched out from the riverbank to a large cargo boat – maybe 7 feet. Then we had to step down from the cargo boat (which was taking on bags of fertilizer from a truck - they stopped to let us pass) onto our smaller boat. We met our ‘captain’ and settled into very comfortable chairs. Our guide had a thick accent and was often hard to understand but he was extremely knowledgeable and pointed out many things along our route.

Our first stop was a brick factory.

Seems strange to visit such a place but it was actually pretty interesting.  Clay is delivered by long boat and all bricks are turned out by hand on a primitive machine. Bricks are then stacked in the sun until there are enough to be placed in the kilns. Each of the 7 kilns can hold 100,000 bricks. The fire is fuelled with rice husks and piles wait beneath shelter where birds searched for termites.

Bricks are left in the kiln for 20 days under temperatures of 1400 degrees.  Fires are built at the entranceway which is then sealed off. Rice husks are shovelled in through a metal sled and the design of the kilns is such that they pull the fire into the entire kiln. After 20 days, a small hole is made into the entranceway to allow the heat to leave slowly and the bricks to cool.

We boarded the boat and headed to our next destination. On route, we went past this family home…

Our journey took us into a smaller canal past men fishing from small boats or standing along the river bank setting up their nets or catching crabs.

We pulled up to a dock and headed to a table set with fruit and jasmine tea with fresh honey.  This time there was a small bowl of chiles for us to dip our fruit into.

 A band played some local music for us and as usual we left some money.

The boat moved slowly down the river up to a coconut processing plant and Ian and I watched in awe as this man husked coconuts by hand. I’m including both photos so hopefully you can appreciate how this man is accomplishing this arduous task. There is a large metal spike pointing into the air. He quickly brings down the coconut onto the spike a couple times breaking the shell – he pulls it off and throws the husks to one side and the coconut to the other. He can husk hundreds of coconuts a day.

We then went for a short walk to a quiet garden where we had some fresh coconut juice. I was leery about this, having had coconut juice before and not liking it…however, this was fresh and tasted better. People love coconut juice and I have read that is very healthy for you – but I am still not a huge fan.  Both Ian and our guide finished theirs.

We headed back onto the boat and down a canal that looked similar to the rivers of Borneo….

This dock looked very unsafe and I was proven correct when the captain stepped onto it and the board almost fell off.  No one seemed worried and the guide stuck out his hand and told me to be careful as I got off the boat. We managed to disembark without incident and headed to a building where we would see how coconut candy was made.

Coconut meat is ground into a fine dust and then pressed for its milk. Sugar is added to the coconut milk, it is boiled and cooled and hardened. Each piece is wrapped in rice paper so if you can’t remove it, you can eat it. We bought some chocolate coconut candy for a dollar and were surprised by how many pieces we ended up with.

Our guide then led us to a couple of bikes and off we went down some narrow windy cement paths to watch a couple of women weaving sleeping mats.  They were incredibly fast.

It was lunchtime so we made our way to a riverside restaurant where we were served a 5 course meal of spring rolls, prawns steamed in coconut milk, do it yourself rice paper rolls with fish, catfish soup, pork, and jackfruit. The meal was delicious and filling. Unfortunately, during the entire meal I was getting bitten by sand flies. As soon as we sat down, I felt bites on my legs - which by the way, I had sprayed liberally with bug spray before we had left. All around us were tiny flying bugs and I knew they were sand flies. I ended up with over 50 bites on my legs; not pretty.

After lunch, we discovered the owner had a snake fish.  Having heard of this fish, I was excited to see if it actually looked like its namesake. You can see for yourself that it does indeed look snake-like.

Lunch over we climbed into a sampon and were taken on a short ride through the canals. They gave us these hats to wear and I have to say, they are a lot cooler than our cloth hats as they allow the air to circulate around your head.

You can’t tell by this photo but the woman who propelled us along the canal wasn’t young. We were thoroughly impressed with her strength and made sure to give her a tip.

Even with the bug bites, we had a brilliant day, a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend Christmas.