A Muslim Village in Mekong Delta Vietnam

These pictures were taken at a small Muslim village on the banks of the Mekong in Vietnam. The first one is of the walkway up from the water. You can see in one of the pictures how high the water got in the wet season on different years which explains why their homes are so high in the air. Some of them had rickety bamboo walkways up to them. I have no idea what happens to their animals when the water rises. Speaking of animals, today I saw a motorbike with a basket on the back. On the bottom of the basket was some hay and on top were at least 8 pigs of about 2-3 feet in length. They were alive and well for the moment and packed in like sardines with the basket fastened over them. Can you imagine how they got them on there? It must have taken at least a few people to do it. I also just read of a delicacy served here that involves a fermented pigs head paste. Sometimes if you don't ever find out what it is, it's ok but if you know it feels awful.
On a recent outing we were asked to taste a type of food wrapped in a banana leaf. It seemed to have a date type outer layer and a filling of rice and other things. After tasting it we were told the outer layer was cow shit! It is a rare treat here. The cows are allowed to eat only a certain type of sweet grass and the shit tastes a little like grass and really sweet. Yuck! I had to try not to think about what I had eaten........ Another thing is that the sweet little puppies in the markets are to be raised for food. People sell the puppies of their family dogs for food! It's all in how you view the world. We are getting further and further from relating what we eat to someting alive that we find it shocking but here in Vietnam they will eat anything and have fun doing it.