Week 4: To the Mekong!

"Bell Apple" fruit in one of the farms
pronounced in Vietnamese as Mận

We really got to see the agriculture and produce of the land in this last leg of the journey, exploring villages around the Mekong River that thrived on their production of coconut products. They had coconut everything, not a crack of the shell wasted. Coconut flesh = sweets and the shell = wind chimes, bowls and much more! The confectionery production line was definitely not something out of a monster factories episode! Nothing like a camera taking pictures of the bottom of every Coca Cola bottle to make sure it was perfect!! There's one person in the corner heating the mix in a large pot and spooning it into a basin that tilts to let the hot lolly run into template of a very long strip. Someone is waiting at the end to chop the long strip into identical squares like a sushi master. The squares fly across the table where some women flip them onto square sheets of paper and wrap them faster than you can say "my bum still hurts from the boat ride here!". I challenge you to give it a shot! The ladies were happy to teach us and watch us fail!


Coconuts are only  sweet around here. Nothing to deceive from the outside like some fresh food grocers!  With some other relos, we bought a whole branch with about 20 coconuts because 1. We can't do this in Australia and 2. We didn't want to waste the chance to indulge on some of the best coconuts ever!

As part of our tour we got to walk around a traditional Vietnamese fruit farm. No stone fruits and berries here - these were the real deal; fruit flies circled around bursting jack fruits and 'milk fruit' (as it is translated from the language and before you ask does not taste like milk but has a milk-looking juice) hung above our heads. Of course we took photos of us brandishing the jack fruit as though it were Simba on Pride rock and even played catch with one that had already fallen off the branch! Our flip flops were right on point with safety! :P

Got to keep up with the hot weather by
investing in the traditional hat!

So that was the 3rd and last tour we embarked on while in Vietnam. We returned to Saigon after to soak in the last what Vietnam had to offer especially coming into the Vietnamese New Year. We continued to feast on what Vietnam had to offer like giant Banh Xeo (Vietnamese pancakes) and cafe sua da since the days were still hot. But what's traveling without a few regrets! I regret not trying all the different Xoi (colored rice) that the ladies would sell by the streets, that I didn't get to catch another Saigon bus to a new district and definitely that one time I ordered spaghetti in a restaurant!

Travelling for that long deprives you of some things you used to do everyday back at home, so for me it was only natural to run straight out of the taxi and into the kitchen to whip up (as sad as it sounds) a bowl of porridge with good ol’ Australian honey (it gets sadder) and for lunch at that! 

Thanks for keeping up!
Mimi xx

This was a local School my mum attended before leaving Vietnam.
Note the "Lollipop BOY" taking one for the team and holding up the sign!

Forgot to share earlier in the first entry about Sapa but these
furry pups were playing on the village doorsteps = too cute to forget!!!

[above] Just a snap from Sapa in the more touristy region
and [adjacent] some Sapa locals heaving the firewood up
the windy paths up and down the mountain walking trails!