Into the backwaters of the Mekong Delta

We took a little boat upriver, that turned into a narrower channel, then turned into an even narrower channel, deep in the coconut forest. Frondy branches leaned over the river on both sides and coconut palms rose up all around us. Every few hundred yards we went past huge piles of coconuts, either arriving, or being cracked open to take out the coconut flesh, which is then washed in a series of baths. The washed flesh is taken to a press, to extract the oil.

At a certain point we left the boat and walked to a little house in the forest, where a table and stools awaited us with fresh coconuts, open so that we could drink the juice with straws, together with little plates of sweet pineapple pieces and bananas.. The women of the house were making cane mats, pushing the pieces of cane into the mat by hand and using a loom to press each piece of cane into the mat tightly.

We were transported from the house on an open carriage, pulled by a motorbike, along narrow paths through the forest until the paved paths came to an end and we continued on foot til we came to a bridge, where a smiling woman waited for us in a little boat. Squatting on the end of the boat she rowed us through the narrow channel, showing us her perfect teeth in a beautiful smile, as we passed through the quiet forest, back to our waiting boat.

The sun was setting as we emerged from the narrow channel into the wide river and we saw that we were opposite our hotel. We had travelled in a circle round a small area of the coconut forest.