Jumped the Ditch: Ben Tre day 2

With only one night in Ben Tre, we packed a lot in. The owners and staff at the hotel were incredibly helpful. They gave us lots of ideas for entertainment, dished up the occasional snack, poured lots of yummy coffees and took us on a great tour this morning. With two other tourists, also from the hotel we went on a boat tour of a couple of the local industries.

The boat was pretty comfy:

The first boat stop was the brick factory. We learnt all about the, very hands on, way that bricks are made and fired. I particularly enjoyed this as I'd been quite curious about the bricks. The houses in Vietnam are all concrete post and beam construction, with these bricks used to fill the spaces between the concrete poles.

The bricks are made with a very simple extrusion press, then stacked by hand into massive kilns.

The kiln is sealed and fired for a number of days. The kilns themselves are beautiful, and the light in them is quite magic. They are popular locations for wedding photos for local couples. There is a lot of ritual around the firing of the kilns, and after a certain number of firings the kiln is no longer considered safe, and is pulled down and rebuilt with new bricks.

After firing is complete, the kiln is again unstacked by hand. At the start, someone climbs in through the hole at the top, and drops the bricks down the metal slide. The bricks come slamming down the slide at a speed which would cut someones hand off if they were not careful, then removed from the bottom, taken by wheelbarrow into the sheds. The employees at the brick factory are paid an above average wage of about USD10 a day.

The next stop was a very touristy place where we were sat at a table and fed delicious local food while listening to some traditional, and pretty dire, singing.

After we'd tipped the singers and purchased some local souvenirs it was back in the boat and on to the coconut "factory"

As at the brick factory, everything is done by hand. First the husks are removed, and loaded onto a boat to be taken to a factory where they are made into mats.

Then the coconuts are cut in half and the shells removed. The shells are made into lots of different items, there is no wastage here.

Then the brown outer of the coconut is peeled off, this is used mainly as animal feed. Then the final product is sent to other places to be used for all sorts of coconut products.

At the coconut factory the workers are paid by weight of the items they process.

This wall shows the tallies of employees work.

Back in the boat, and on to the coconut candy factory. Again, it's all done by hand. The coconut milk is mixed with malt, boiled for hours over a fire while being stirred until it's like a thick dough. The dough is pressed into strips, cut and wrapped by hand. We bought some and the kids tell me it's very tasty.