Personal website of Mithun Divakaran, a guy you may or may not know -- or like.
Photos and stories from many of my travels in the past 5 years
Date: 25 October 2019
I was enjoying my day tour of the Mekong Delta, especially the canal boat ride through a narrow river stream. After that activity, I had to re-group and get back on our boat which would take us to another island on Tien River.
After they break open the coconut, they grate it and then extract coconut milk from the grated coconut.
Continue reading “Vietnam: Coconut sweet making factory, Bến Tre” »
Date: 25 October 2019
After the first stop to Vinh Trang pagoda, we were back on the highway en route to the next stop on my Mekong Delta tour.
Our van parked by a dock at Tiền River in Bến Tre province.
There are many small islands along Tien river and the Mekong. The boat we were on dropped us off at one such island in the Ben Tre province where my tour group would then be guided to a restaurant-like area.
Honestly, this was just a stop on the “tour” where the guys who run this place could use to promote and sell us a bunch of locally made products.
Continue reading “Vietnam: Bến Tre canal boat ride, Tien River (part of Mekong Delta tour)” »
Date: 25 October 2019
Today was my third day in Vietnam but day 2 of my sightseeing. Yesterday, I saw Ben Thanh Market and Mariamman Hindu Temple, Independence Palace and Norodom Palace Exhibit, the War Remnants Museum and finally checked out Bui Vien Street — Ho Chi Minh City’s nightlife area (for tourists).
I had booked a tour of the Mekong Delta today but let me be clear — it wasn’t really a tour of the Mekong Delta — just stops at My tho and Ben Tre. You see, the Mekong Delta is a huge region in south western Vietnam where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries. The places I would visit today as part of this day tour only covers a fraction of what Mekong Delta is. There are multi-day tours of Mekong Delta which include stops at the rice paddy fields and such but I’m from Kerala — where there are enough rice paddy fields only a short drive away from me.
Instead, I did this short tour (cost 320000 VND or ₹1020/$13/€11.8) — mainly for one activity — which will be in the next post. The first stop on the tour was a temple called Vinh Trang Pagoda (a Buddhist temple) in Mỹ Tho, an hours drive from Ho Chi Minh City.
From the rest stop, it was a short drive to the temple. Our minibus parked outside the entrance.
Continue reading “Vietnam: Vinh Trang Pagoda in Bến Lức” »