I got to see Bến Tre in the company of some Vietnamese friends whose parents live in a house close to one of the many canals that criss-cross the island. After a journey by bus through a landscape of wonderful rice fields edged with palm trees, we arrived at a house that was itself surrounded by coconut palms. The father explained to us in the garden that the huge piles of coconuts we could see more or less everywhere would be used to produce oil: an important resource for the region's inhabitants.
After spending a little time chatting, we set off by boat to explore the beautiful canals of Bến Tre at sunset. It was a wonderful moment, simply unforgettable in fact: we sailed gently along through lush vegetation to the sound of lapping water – definitely an exotic, off-the-beaten-track kind of experience!