Around Hội An

Last week we took a bike tour to some of the islands of Hội An. We started out with a boat ride down the Thu Bon river, arriving at Duy Vinh Island.

There was a demonstration of mat weaving. The woman on the left is the weaver, and the one on the right is the assistant. Our guide says that the younger generation is not learning the trade and that it will soon be gone.

And a tour of a traditional house, which was interesting as it included a description of how to climb in the rafters and live there for days when it floods.

We then biked to a house that made rice wine. The rice is on the white tarp, and fermenting in the red buckets on the left.

We tasted the rice wine, while our guide told numerous stories of excessive drinking by men on the island.

There were a few pigs in concrete cages in the house. Per our guide, they ate the leftover rice from the wine production, so they were always happy (despite their concrete cage?). She also told us that the rice is cooked using methane gas from the pig poop that has been washed through holes in the concrete and collects under the house.

We biked across a bridge to the adjoining island.

One fisherman slapped the water with the paddle, and then the other grabbed the fish that surfaced with the net.

A tradesman showed us how he makes boats. Our guide said that every family on the island had one to use in time of floods.

The wife of the boat maker then demonstrated how to use the boats. You never know if the locals enjoy working with tourist, as obviously they get more work if they aren’t scowling at you. Perhaps this woman is not having fun, but she deserves an Oscar for her performance if it wasn’t genuine.

Views while biking.

A water buffalo with the longest horns we have seen yet.

In Kim Bon, we visited a workshop that does woodwork with shell inlay. The final products were impressive (sorry, no photos).

Above is the end of the tour. Below are photos from around town.

One afternoon the kids and I took an afternoon walk to Kim Bồng village on an adjoining island. Below the kids are pictured relaxing at our destination in a cafe. We needed to relax after walking over the long bridge that prohibited cars. It was wide enough for two motorcycles to pass, and there was an endless stream coming in both directions. The frightening part occurred every time the motorcycle on our side was pulling a cart behind it, which would leave us with about 6 inches of space (okay… maybe it was 18 inches). Whatever it was, I was frightened I was going to lose my knees, or legs… or life.

Since we did not want to return via the bridge, we walked halfway across the island to where I had read that the ferry could take us back to Hội An mainland. It turns out; the ferry had already stopped for Tet. Opps. A friendly shopkeeper helped me talk our way onto one of the last tourist boats leaving the island. We would have paid quite a lot to skip the hike back over the bridge, but the captain let us on for about $4 total.