After visiting the Handicraft Stall, we continued on the road to My Tho – Ben Tre. One of the places we passed was a new “Happy Land” Theme Park that is being constructed outside of Ho Chi Minh City – financed by Joe Jackson (the late-Michael Jackson’s father). Also along the road, we saw a number of tombstones in the middle of rice fields (and basically anywhere else). We learnt that in Vietnam, you are allowed to pretty much be buried anywhere 🙂
We eventually arrived at the Melong River, where we transferred from the bus to a boat which would be the next part of our journey. Looked fun!
We firstly arrived on Dragon Island where we visited a Bee Farm, I took the opportunity to ‘hold’ the hive – which was actually not that bad at all. They won’t sting ya in reality (well I hoped! Ha!). We then sat down to have a relaxing honey drink – made with honey, pollen, kumquat and warm water – was actually very refreshing indeed.
After this, we then changed to a smaller rowing boat, and went down the Mekong River – past the mangroves – and this was actually sooo relaxing and peaceful (apart from the several other boats – ha!) – but the atmosphere was brilliant… I was soooo chilled, relaxed, and definitely enjoying the moment.
We arrived at another island, at a local village, where we relaxed with the locals, watched them play Vietnamese Chess (draughts), we ate some fresh fruit, and listened to some folk music. It was pretty chilled here – although I think they did still try to sell you stuff at the market, as you walked through.
Another boat ride to another island – and this time we ventured into a Coconut Candy workshop, this was actually quite fascinating – and smelt really nice throughout. Although the smell of Durian Coconut Candy – wasn’t really my cup of tea – hehe (do try it if you are offered to!)
We the joined a smaller boat (with a motor – rather than paddle), and were arrived at another island along the Mekong River.
We walked into another village and to a restaurant which sat over the River – which was pretty nice – pleasant views across the river and so quiet. We had our lunch (which was part of the tour) – although they had an added extra menu if we were being adventurous – ranging from shrimps, chicken, elephant ear-fish, pigeon, squirrel, iguana, eel, snack and turtle – hmm…hence why we decided to play safe and go with the standard lunch (the added extras didn’t seem that cheap either!!). So we ate our Vietnamese Spring Rolls, Pork Chop, Green Vegetables and Rice – yummy!
We tne had some free time to chill and walk around the surrounding area (including taking a moment to rest in a hammock! Ha!), which was great to see the village life, and the local people do their thing 🙂
We then headed back on the rowing boat back to the Jetty where our bigger boat was waiting for us, and it took us back to the My Tho and Ben Tre mainland, where our bus was waiting for us to take us back to Ho Chi Minh City.
All in all – a nice tour, we didn’t feel that rushed, and we were able to really see a few parts of life on and around the Mekong Delta and Mekong River.