2017 Anzac Tour: Day 12

We embarked from the hotel just after 8 with our Eco Adventure Tour guide, Yen. Excited for our second bike tour everyone was keen to get going. First off we started by riding through Hoi An, which was an extremely different experience because of having to cross busy intersections, with some of us running a red light. We then travelled on the back roads through to the rice paddy fields.

Yen was going to teach us six lessons about the rural Vietnamese lifestyle. The first lesson was about the farming of ducks. We learnt that ducks are cheaper to buy than chickens as it only takes three months to grow them as opposed to six months. We also learnt that the ducks didn't fly away as they were happy and that the farmer lived in the yard with them.

The next lesson was about organic produce. We met Xiem, a 73 year old lady who grows different types of herbs and vegetables. She waters each plot four times a day on a hot day and twice on a rainy day. The majority of us had a go at watering the vegetables using the traditional method. To keep her crop pest free she mixes a solution of ginger, garlic, chilli and water to spray on it. To naturally clean the water, fish are used as filters and to reduce the amount of mosquitos. In return for our hard work, Xiem picked us some fresh greens for our lunch.

It was then off for our third lesson, where we learnt about the production of rice. We learnt that 500 square metres yields 250kgs of rice, at which one kilo of rice is sold for 10,000VND which is roughly 50 cents. Rice is harvested twice a year as it takes four months from seeding to harvesting with a couple months being too wet for growing. At each harvest nothing is wasted, even the husks are used to feed the buffaloes. It was interesting to hear that one Vietnamese person consumes 160kgs of rice per year. Just before heading to our next lesson we went to have a photo amongst the fields, and Paige decided she would take an unexpected dip in the mud.

During lesson four about the role of buffaloes, some of us had the opportunity to ride on Xe, an 11 year old water buffalo whom had over 100 wives. The buffaloes are treated like pets and if they work they do not get eaten.

For lesson five we left the bikes behind and hopped onto a boat. After cruising down the river we stopped at a local fishing village and tried reeling in some fishing nets, with Paige and Ashliegh catching the two smallest fish at roughly three centimetres and Tierni catching the largest. The reason that we didn't catch many fish is because we were too early due to the best fishing time being at 2pm when the tide is at its lowest point. We said goodbye to the locals and headed further down the river to the water coconut jungle where our sixth lesson began.

We learnt that the water coconut jungle trees provide many functions. Such as protection, building material, preventing erosion, housing animals and it was also the hiding area for the Viet Cong. Then the experience was topped off by having some fun in bamboo basket boats made from tar, bamboo and buffalo dung. Most people climbed into the boats to have a go at a few different activities. Tristyn and Ashliegh were thrown off by their boat captain many times. Others had little trinkets like rings, crowns, bracelets, birds and stick figures made from the leaves of the water coconut trees. Then we got back onto the boat for some lunch, which was prepared by the captain of the boat in the smallest kitchen ever.

After lunch it was back to the hotel for some down time. Some chose to go shopping, others went swimming and the rest caught up on some beauty sleep. At 7pm we all gathered in the lobby and were set a challenge of finding a meal for dinner in under 2 hours with 100,000VND per person, which is equal to $6. Some people went healthy while others went straight for the dessert. On arrival back to the hotel we enjoyed a cool night swim.