Vietnam: Day 3

Eggs anyone?  This is the public market in Hoi An Vietnam.  So much food.  So fresh.  Fish are still flopping, beef being carved off the cow as it is milked (not quite) and eggs still being laid by chickens being plucked (not really either).

This cute old woman is selling specialty Cao Lau noodles at the market.

Bananas!  We were told that you should buy bananas the way you choose a husband.  If you choose a husband that is pretty on the outside, he will turn out to be ugly and mean on the inside.  So find a banana that looks ugly because it will be sweet and delicious to eat.  We've tried it and it works!




So it started raining and we had these rainjackets/plastic bags to wear.  The Greene's and us thought we looked a little like Easter eggs.










Haven and Finlay riding a water buffalo.  These guys just hang out in their pasture here, tied up of course, and help farmers with pulling plows and carts.  Not so much anymore, but they are worth having.  They cost about 20,000,000 VND to purchase ($1000).








Fin hauling seaweed to the farm.  This is standard practice here in Vietnam.  Doesn't he look like he fits in?








Haven is working the water wheel that would traditionally be used to pull the water up out of the river to irrigate the crops.  Now they've got electric pumps to do that work.  Haven just sat there and used her feet to step, like riding a bike a bit.  It worked pretty well.









Haven's turn to bring some seaweed fertilizer.  We dug up the old bed about 10 inches and then threw down the seaweed.  After stomping it flat we covered it up with the very sandy soil and planted young Pac Choi plants.  Haven is wearing the traditional farmer shirt with her rain hat.





This family can cook a mean Bahn Xeo!













Cooking our shrimp that we marinated.












Megan and Erin performing the tandem flip!

Haven is balancing our lunch on her head all the way to the table.

Spreading the rice flour on the cloth.  It is suspended over a boiling pot of water heated by a fire.  We all made perfect rice papers for fresh Vietnamese spring rolls.  Too bad we ate so much for lunch.  We could have enjoyed them right off the fire.  I don't think we'll be making them for anyone at home though.  You know...it's kind of hard to find good bamboo sticks in the States.






Here fin is making a rice cracker over hot coals that he is fanning himself.  Two hands working together.








He did such a great job on the cracker that he didn't want to share it.  He went back to grinding the rice into flour using this grinding stone.

Our day at Tra Que Water Wheel farm was so fun.  Thanks for the recommendation by the Jenkin family.  We highly recommend it to others.  It was truly a highlight and our guide, Helen, was a gem!