Folk Singers and Tea

Our second stop on our Mekong River boat tour, after we got soaked by rain, was at a honey farm. The didn't actually show any honey production. Instead, the served very delicious honey tea and fresh fruit, which we enjoyed as we dried off.

While we ate and drank, two folk musicians came out and preformed some traditional love songs. The man played some sort of stringed guitar like instrument and the woman sang. We were expected to tip, and we did.

Because of the rain, and also since it was the off-tourist season, we were the only ones there. Another boat did arrive as we were leaving. That caused a minor trafic jam on the very small plank "dock" at the bee farm.


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Up The River

This video is taken from the boat ride up to a coconut candy place. The canal is fairly wide and has tall wood pedestrian bridges over it. The occasional houses along the river are the typical rural wood construction with corrugated metal roofs. The boat ride up to the candy plant took about five minutes and we saw very few houses or other structures. The plants along the bank came right down to the water's edge.

At the candy plant, they demonstrated the traditional method of melting the candy in a large metal kettle and then rolling it and slicing it on a table. The candy is very sweet and chewy, a little like taffy. It is wrapped in an edible cellophane wrapper, which confused my coworkers when I brought some into work after the trip. It was a much bigger hit at the nail salon my wife goes to.

The gift shop was a large thatched roof booth that had a lot of tourist items made out of coconut. We were expected to buy some candy and we did as well as a few souvenir chopsticks carved out of coconut tree. They were very ornately decorated and a good functional souvenir.


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