Water Buffalo Cowpokes

     Another adventure! Today, Phillip and I went on a tour entitiled "Countryside and Cooking." Although it wasn't advertised as a private tour, it was. Joy and Ruby were our tour guides, arriving at our hotel with helmets and on their motorcycles we went. Joy and Ruby were very safe drivers. The speed limit in town is 30 km/hour, aka 18 mph. We had no problems in traffic, but were glad they were driving, not us! No stop signs in town. None at all.
     We stopped at a market and a coffee shop on our way out of town. Love that iced coffee! Joy and Ruby were happy that it was relatively cool (i.e., not terribly hot!) today.

Ruby, Pat, and Joy

     Riding thru the countryside, we passed rice fields in various stages of harvest readiness.

rice almost ready to be harvested

Some fields were being harvested, by machine if the farmer was rich enough, by hand if they weren't. In all the harvested fields, the plants were collected to be used as cattle feed during the rainy season.

rice stems after harvesting the rice, to be fed to cattle

We weren't riding on wide streets in the country, more like concrete paths, raised above the fields. No cars, just motorcycles and bicycles.

our road thru the fields

Like Ecuador, Vietnam has bovine road mainentance, as cows and water buffalo grazed what we would call the road right-of-way.

animals graze right up to the road

Joy and Ruby stopped under some trees next to a man with a water buffalo. This guy (the water buffalo, not the man) had been tamed to give rides. Regular water buffalo, like our cows, don't take too kindly to people on their backs.

His skin felt thinner than that of our cows

And then we went for a ride down the path! The sway of the animal walking was front-to-back, not side to side, so it took a few steps to get used to, but our water buffalo was quite docile.

I rode him along the track, then the handler got on with me and took him into the water. Their thinner skin means that they love being in the water and mud. When the handler turned him to the water, he perked up and went right in.

After our water buffalo ride, Joy and Ruby took us to a rug weaver. Two women weave traditional rugs using natural fiber and dyes. It takes then four hours to complete about a 6' x 8' rug. They had fun with us when we tried it! We could do it, but not as fast as them.

rug weaving

More countryside driving, viewing traditional houses and stopping at a farmer's house to see the garden.

And then they girls dropped us off at a cooking school in town. Our teacher taught us to make a different version of crispy pancake (this one had an egg in it), seasoned fish cooked in banana leaves, fried spring rolls, and my favorite, chicken papaya salad.

ingredients for chicken papaya salad

The salad used shredded green papaya, which tastes noting like the ripe, sweet fruit of the mature papaya. The finished salad is eaten with rice chips.

eating the salad

And yes, Phillip is fully participating in the cooking classes!

flipping the spring rolls as they fry

Tomorrow is a travel day. We leave Hoi An and head for the town of Hue, another UNESCO Heritage Site. We have rreally enjoyed our adventures in Hoi An!