Vietnam 2: Biking the countryside and Hoi An at night

That night, we walked into downtown Hoi An and looked at the shops.  I ended up buying something really small for Miles.  We also ended up walking by a few locals standing around someone who was singing.  It was an interesting sound to say the least.



The next morning, we had a 7:30 AM appointment with a local tour.  As we were arriving, a wedding procession was passing by.



I was on a bike and Stephanie was on a scooter/motorbike, holding onto one of the two guides.  We put our bikes on a boat and sailed across the river to an island with a reported population of 5000.



 First, we stopped at a small set of buildings where people were building boats and small pieces of art, among other things.  We were told that the younger generation does not want to work all day in the sun for little pay, and so have been going to school and moving to the cities.  I wonder what will happen to these industries and crafts once the older generation dies out.  She also pointed out that the boats have eyes drawn on them.  She had a few different potential reasons for this.  Among them included scaring off monsters in the water and another being thatc it would help steer the men home when they were drunk.



Next, we stopped at a local house, where an old woman showed me how to row a basket boat.  You had to row in a C or 8 figure formation.  It was not easy.



Next, I had to cycle over a very rickety, but awesome, bridge to a neighboring island.  On a smaller bridge beyond that, we passed mini electric poles that I just had to take a picture of.



We were taken to some local women, whose job it was to cut the high grass nearby, so the liquid inside would evaporate, and then they were laid out in the sun for multiple days.  We watched them do the cutting and Stephanie gave it a try.

Afterwards, we went to a house in which rice wine was produced.  The process was explained to us, including how they gave excess rice to the pigs and then used their manure, which now included the alcohol, as methane to heat the rice into gas, which was then cooled and turned into the wine.  We were also shown how they put centipedes into rice wine as a chicken illness remedy and ginseng into it as a way to wake up and refresh humans at the end of the day.

Finally, we arrived at a place for lunch, a restored traditional house.  The left doors were opened for women, the right doors for men, and the middle doors for their ancestral spirits.



We were greeted by a local cat and then fed lunch.  I had chicken, rice, and an unidentifiable vegetable, while Stephanie had a vegetable dish.



At night, we went back out to downtown Hoi An and browsed the shops some more.  I also made sure to take a picture of how they have a bit too many electric wires connected to the posts.