This morning we’re heading out to visit the floating market and candy making factory, it was the latter that turned the American and Kiwi guy off the rest of the trip. Their loss my gain I say! The floating market by the time we got there was pretty much over really which was a shame but we did get a chance to see some of the community in action. Our guide today was different from yesterday and a lot nicer and friendlier and explained that the market here was more of a wholesale market where people would come to buy goods that they could then sell in another market. The people selling their goods came from many miles away by boat and would stay for a week or so until they sold all their wares, in the meantime they would just hang out on their boat and anyone wanting goods could see what they were selling by what was tied onto the mast pole and would row over and negotiations would begin.
The floating market
We then made our way to the candy and rice paper making factory. When I say factory, obviously it’s not in the sense of factories at home. This factory was a small family run business which also employed some of the local villagers and in each area of a large open sided building all different types of food creations were taking place.
Rice husks traveling down the Mekong
There was the lady making sesame rice paper, a job she’s been doing for 20 years and it was very tasty, then there was the candy making area consisting of four people all hard at it – heating the ingredients, levelling it out in pre-made moulds, cutting it to just the right size and wrapping each one in turn before packaging them up for sale. Next was the pop corn, now not usually a favourite of mine, but this was different and made in a massive wok by being mixed with hot black sand until it had popped. Then it was sieved from the sand and either salt or sugar added and packaged. The fuel for the fires through each of the processes is from rice grain husks. On the river you see boat after boat after boat travelling by loaded high with what looks like rice and what everyone believes is rice but you know I wasn’t so sure (not that I know of course), in a lot of cases the ‘rice’ wasn’t in sacks and there was something about the way they were handling it that made me unsure. I know rice is abundant in Vietnam, with the Vietnamese being one of the highest producers in the SE Asia area, but rice is also a very valuable and very treasured crop and not to be wasted at any cost and it was the wastage that made me wonder if it was rice but because everyone I met seemed convinced it was, I just went along with it.......until our guide pointed out that it was in fact only the husks we were seeing and that these were the main source of fuel over the entire Mekong Delta which we then found out at the factory.
Sweet making factory
There was even a guy making use of the salt in the river. First he would collect the raw material, then he would boil it, soak it and cool it and the end result was packaged up and would probably end up on our tables all over Vietnam.
The salt refining process
The homestay and the visits we made today were the best bits of the Mekong tour and really made th experience, it was just a shame the rest of it was so badly organised and that there were so many unhappy people travelling around.
The way to travel - but that's still a small boat!
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