Sa Dec 1 Brick Factory (12/31/2012)

Monday, December 31, 2012
It's New Year's Eve!
This morning's 8:30 shore excursion was to ride a sampan water bus into the canal system off the Mekong, which connects its many distributaries (opposite of tributaries).
Larger cargo ships:

Sinking house:

There is an inter-dependence between rice and brick in the Mekong Delta. Rice is brought here to be husked or hulled. The rice husks are loaded onto barges to go to the brick factories:

Loading rice (?) onto barges:

Most of the rice is exported.
We stopped to visit a brick factory, where the ground had a curious mixture of broken tiles and rice husks:

The factory makes terra cotta bricks and tiles:

KSS

A machine mixes the clay, spits it out as noodles, then presses it into tiles:

The tiles are laid onto wooden frames:

KSS

and taken off to dry in the sun:

The break room:

Looking straight up in an empty kiln:

Waiting to load a kiln with dried bricks:

Using a mechanized vertical conveyor belt to help load the kiln:

The kiln is then fired up:

KSS

The local guide Thien shows where the rice husk fuel is dumped.

A fuel/rice husk depot:

The fuel supply manager:

Keeping track with his handheld device:

An opened kiln is allowed to cool down:

This kiln is being emptied of its bricks:

An unused kiln houses chickens:

The husk carriers on break:

The rice husks are delivered to the brick factory, and the ash from the kilns is delivered to rice  farms for fertilizer:

The owner of the brick factory:

Tiles being loaded onto a barge:

View of kilns:

Leaving the brick factory; it seemed that most workers lived either on the factory grounds, or close by:

Swimming or bathing?

Next, Sa Dec 2 Market.