Mekong River Delta May 22, 2013

The Mekong River is up to five km wide in places and is known as the Yellow River in the south and the Red river near Hanoi due to the pollution.  We took a three hour bus ride to Cai Be where we boarded a long boat and toured thru village life on the delta. The floating market is a wholesale market. Smaller boats buy a minimum if 10kg of product and resale at retail markets. Each boat sells one product as designated by the item hanging high on a pole. One boat had an onion on a pole. 

Smaller boat purchasing a load of watermelons for retail sale from wholesale boat.

We watched then make coconut candy from only coconut and sugar. Some has added ingredients like peanuts or cocoa for flavour varieties:

Melting the sugar and coconut to soft chewy candy consistency

They roll the coconut mixture out, cut into long strips, cut each strip into squares, wrap each candy in rice paper and then wrap each in a labeled wax paper.

We stopped at a guest house for lunch, borrowed some bikes for a short ride thru the village, then we relaxed at the hammock cafe. Hammock cafes are everywhere. What a great idea. 

This lady is making rice paper for spring rolls etc. She pours a thin layer of rice batter (just rice that sits in water for a long time) on fabric stretched over a fire. She then hangs the patty to dry for a minute over a wicket basket, then lays them on huge woven bamboo trays until dried for packaging. 

Ladies waiting to row us through the village