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If you’ll recall, in the last chapter we ended up in a candy factory. These girls are the production line where the end product is packaged.

The process of getting to this stage is pretty involved. They start off with a hot wok with steel beads in the bottom. They add rice and start to stir the mix as heat is added to the wok. I think the hot steel beads must help the rice to pop much faster, because everything happens so quickly.

When all the rice has popped it is dumped into a tray with a wire mesh bottom, and the husks are allowed to fall through the wire mesh. The guy showing us the process has obviously been doing this for a very long time. He made it look so easy.

Having retired from the Navy, I'm well aware of what the initials NAVY stands for, at least in the eyes of a new young recruit. (Never Again Volunteer Yourself). I don’t think Wayne knew that little acronym. He jumped right in and volunteered to give it a go. Bravo Wayne.

Wayne makes it look a little more difficult, as in back breaking work. This makes retirement seen so much more gratifying. He’s getting lots of direction from the sidewalk superintendents. Funny how there’s never a shortage of direction. ;o)

Shaking out the husks is harder than it looks, but the end result is a nice big basket of popped rice.

Our expert has enlisted another helper to keep the popped rice flowing, and he encourages him with a pat on the back.

Not quite satisfied, the expert takes over for the finishing touches, making certain all the husks fall through the sieve.

They add a sweet syrup to the popped rice and press the mix into this mold, roll it out flat, and cut it into identical rectangles.

From here it goes to the girls on the production line (see first photo above), and the rectangles get wrapped for final sale and distribution. The next time I go to China Town and see these little popped rice treats, I’m going to remember these photos.

Now I know we are still in the candy factory, so why is our guide holding up a snake? Well, it seams these folks attribute a lot of healing power to snakes. They make a powerful drink from snakes soaking in jars of an alcoholic mixture, much like the Rattlesnake Tequila you can find at Pancho Villa’s in Cabo San Lucas. It cures rheumatism, fatigue, diabetes, you name it.

So of course our guide pours a shot for each of us. I don’t know about everybody else, but I instantly felt better. ;o)

They sell jars of the liquor with various critters inside, like scorpions, salamanders, cobras, etc. And NO, I didn’t buy a jar.

Before we left the candy factory, they sat us down at small tables and served us hot tea and samples of their various products.

It was all very good, and we had a great time, but now it’s time to leave the candy factory and rejoin Tin on our sampan.

Tin provides us with more history of the Mekong River Delta as we wend our way past sagging buildings and other boats, on our way back to our ship.

This is to be our last day on board the Viking ship, so tonight we say farewell to the crew, and following that we are invited to the sun deck for a farewell show of Vietnamese music.

Pisey sings for us again, as a prelude to the Vietnamese musicians in their colorful costumes with traditional instruments.

A traditional story play is performed, with the actors performing with much enthusiasm and professional acumen.

I had compassion for the blind princess, even though I did not know the full details of the play.

The music was sad, if you can imagine that in oriental instruments. Even the musicians looked a bit sad. ;o(

And the poor blind princess played her part very well.      You could almost see the tears behind her blindfold.

It was a very enjoyable performance, and a nice way to end our voyage on the Viking ship, through a land that seems more magical having been here at long last. My total knowledge of Vietnam stemmed from the war news in the 60s & 70s. Seeing the country and its people now, it gives one hope that the human experience can be an enlightening one.

On the morning of 10 December we have our bags packed and placed outside our cabins. They are collected by the crew, and we board a bus for the ride to the Sofitel hotel in Saigon.

We enter Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City, and arrive at our hotel, noting that it is definitely dressed in the spirit of Christmas.

Our rooms will not be ready until 2:00 PM, so we use the facilities, and then depart on a city tour, which I will take up in the next chapter.