Phum O Mekong Off The Beaten Path

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A side trip from Cai Be is the village of Binh Hoa Phuoc (or villages) as they are so close to one another , you can't tell the difference, is a superb day. Taking a sampan along the canals we first came to a small factory where the girls sit and work emptying the Mekong cockles. A good hour was spent with our guide chatting and laughing over who wanted her photo taken, who was shy etc. They earn about 1 dollar for a kilo of cockles, and believe me there is a lot of cockles(emptied) in a kilo. Gives them between 2 and 3 dollars a day.After this we had lunch in an old house, chinese of origin, that doubles as a restaurant and had a fish called "elephants ear". Delicious !! After a siesta in the garden, got back on the sampan and ended up at another house with a large garden with small open sided huts on stilts where we were to sleep for the night. From there we hired bikes and went for a ride and met some lovely people on the way. Unfortunately none of these places have names and it was only through our guide that we saw what turned out to be a real highlight of our trip. A real backroads experience.