From Ho Chi Minh city it is possible to travel for a day down to the Mekong Delta and get a little taste of life in that area. Life revolves around the water, fish is plentiful and it seems to be quite a lush and fertile place.

If you travel down to My Tho City and head to the river you can hire a boat to take you over to one of the islands that sit in the middle of the river. There are all sorts of cottage industries that are based on the islands from a coconut factory, fishing, bee keepers, orchid farms amongst others. It is possible to book onto a days tour of many of these things and get a small sample of life. That is what I did and I really enjoyed the experience.

The coconut factory. I am a huge fan of coconut so particularly enjoyed this place especially as there was a shop and lots of different sweets made from coconut to try and to buy. I also managed to find a coconut spoon the same as we used in the noodle making process so that was an added bonus.

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Trying lots of tropical fruit.

Durian fruit (a very smelly one but tastes quite good)

Papaya, pineapple, dragon fruit, mini bananas and mango. Although I have tasted most of these before they are nothing like we have at home it is all so fresh and straight from the tree as it were. All across Southeast Asia it is customary to eat your fruit with a sugar, salt and chilli sprinkle on top and I have got quite used to this now I think it may be a feature when I’m home.

I learnt a little bit about Vietnamese musical instruments…

I met a bee keeper and sampled some of the produce.

Then there were orchids. While I was admiring these beautiful flowers the rest of my travel companions were taking it in turns to hang a python around their necks not at all my idea of fun so I was grateful to the orchids for the distraction.