Vietnam

Day 6

A day of learning about things…

Today we went out to one of the islands near Hou An to see how people make a living from the land.

The first home we visited was a rice wine distillery.

We saw how rice is ground and roasted and then fermented with yeast for a week.

The liquid the gets distilled and is stored in glass bottles with various fruits and other flavourings.

The leftover rice is fed to the pigs, who then provide the methane for the still!

The man who runs the place is a former soldier who lost his leg to a landmine fighting in Cambodia. He is called Mr Dau, and is a really delightful smiley man. The rice wine business supports his extended family.

It actually tastes OK. 30% alcohol or more.

Next we went a house where an old couple were weaving sleeping mats out of water reeds. Really amazing to watch and a great skill.

Our next stop was a noodle-making place, where we learned how they husk and grind rice to make a really fine powder before mixing it with water.

We all had a go at spreading the mixture on the drum where it cooks over a rice husk fire for half a minute.

It is then chopped up, which we also did. Our lunch was various delicious noodle dishes.

During the morning we also looked at prawn farming, rice fields and a peanut crop. In the afternoon we did some more sightseeing and shopping in the Old Town.

There is a 17th century Japanese bridge which is incredibly beautiful.

We had a bit of time in the afternoon to relax back at the hotel.

In the evening we attended an amazing performance the Teh Dar Bamboo Circus. A combination of dance, acrobatics and story telling. Sensational. No pictures allowed unfortunately.

Hoi An at night is heaving with tourists. The river is full of little boats carrying lanterns. People float little paper lanterns on the river for wishes.

We went for a delicious dinner at one of the many riverside restaurants, and out on a little lantern boat ourselves. A great night. We also floated our own wish lanterns.

Some selected scenes around Hoi An today.