Brothers & sisters…, on the third day of our visit to Ho Chi Minh City we went to Mekong delta. It’s about one and a half hour drive from Saigon. After having a great breakfast (again), we went directly to the lobby. As usual our guide was already waiting for us in the lobby and we drove directly to a place called My Tho. Upon arrival we walked to the boat port and got into a small boat to cross the Tien River to a land where local coconut candies are produced. The river crossing took about 15 minutes.

Coconut Candy producing house

After we landed, we walked about 50 meters and immediately found the coconut candy small factory. Our guide explained to us the process of making coconut candies, from the raw material which is coconut up to the ready to be consumed coconut candies. The process is similar to producing Jenang in Java. There are some ready candies the visitors can taste. We bought some for our friends. Actually there are many other products made from coconut sold here, such as coconut oil, virgin coconut oil, soap and cosmetic.

Honey producing house

Next we walked through fruit farms and stop for a while in the peasant house to taste some fruits produced locally. Then we continued walking and then sailing with a small boat to honey producing house not too far away down the stream. We got off the boat after about 200 meters sailing in the small river. Here we can see many boxes around the house. These boxes are actually the honey bee boxes. The honey produced here is pure honey. There many other products we can buy here, such as bee pollen, royal jelly, cosmetic, etc.

Local music group is singing, the visitors then freely give some money

Enjoying warm honey tea

Playing with a snake

After enjoying some honey tea and fruits we went back to our boat and crossing the Tien River heading to the port. Our next destination is Vinh Trang Temple.

Vinh Trang Temple

This is a Buddhist temple where you can find a huge happy laughing Buddha statue and also a sleeping Buddha statue. Unlike most Buddha statue in Thailand which mostly painted in gold color, here the statues are painted in white color. This temple was built in 1850 and had been renovated several times. We did not go inside the temple. We just took several photos outside.

the whole team

From Vinh Trang temple we went to a local restaurant called Mekong Rest Stop for a late lunch. This is a huge restaurant can fit hundreds of people. This restaurant is serving local cuisines, which to me are excellent.