Obviously we had hit the rainy season here in central Vietnam as it poured cats and dogs all morning. We had been supposed to go on an organized rain or shine bike tour this morning but we finked out when we saw the rain. It finally stopped raining about midday so we rented the bikes next door again and set off to explore more of the countryside. The bikes only cost 30VND each per day, about $1.25 and we didn't expect to have to pay for parking them as we did yesterday at the beach and while visiting the cultural sites in Hoi An!
Rode first to Than Ha, a local pottery village. We stopped in only one shop but didn't care for anything we saw.
Had to be very careful not to hit these chickens who were fighting in the road.
Camera 'glued' to my right wrist again while we rode so I could take photos on the fly as we rode through the village by the river and then just kept riding.
Saw more of the 'floating plants' we'd seen 2 days previously.
Remember my mentioning the eyes on the boats a couple of posts back? Saw lots more of them here.
What an idyllic afternoon we had biking by the river and watching life go by away from other tourists like ourselves.
More chickens duking it out!
Steven had seen these women playing cards and pointed them out to me. I stopped riding and took some photos - luckily, no problem with that. Gambling may be illegal in Vietnam but there sure was some money exchanging hands during this card game.
Rode our bikes back to Hoi An and stopped at this small shop as we noticed they had plastic rain ponchos for sale. We had bought ours 2 years ago in northern Thailand and we were overdue for more as both had ripped and were now 'decorated' with duct tape!
The female shopkeeper didn't understand much English and the fellow in the bright blue shirt had been walking by and kindly stopped to translate as there lots of choices when it came to buying plastic ponchos!
I began chatting ( I know, surprise, surprise!) with the woman above. Turns out she, her husband and 3 young sons are from Germany and are traveling the world til next August. They'd spent quite a bit of time in the States and visited NYC, Seattle and even attended Burning Man, Alexander. (Steven and I met the woman with just one of the sons again while we were all visiting the Citadel in Hue several days ago - what a small world.)
Photos of Hoi An from the other side of the river:
Wish I had found out what this huge net was for while we were in Hoi An.
The Dragon Bridge that had looked so picturesque a couple of nights ago when it was all lit up.
Selfie - sure glad there was no traffic to speak of while I took this photo!
We decided to go on our own bike ride to Kim Bong Island which is where we should have gone this morning with the bike tour if the weather had cooperated. To get there meant taking the 15 minute motorcycle and bike ferry which only cost us 40VND, about $1.70 each.
The woman beside me mentioned that she works in Hoi An selling leather shoes and handbags her father makes. While she and I were chatting, we saw out of the corner of our eyes a man almost ride his motorcycle into the river. He managed to stop before hitting the river but his bike didn't!
It caused quite a stir for those on shore but not much of a surprise as the poles to pull the motorcycle out appeared quickly enough.
Some of the oldest bikes I had ever seen unlike ours below.
Had no map but sure didn't need one on Kim Bong Island as we couldn't get lost.
Sure glad I had my trusty river shoes on biking through puddles like this one!
Never seen a baby buffalo before.
Patriotic fervor evident in sleepy Kim Bong.
Local school - looked like a middle school judging from the students's ages, I thought.
Can't begin to tell you how much fun we had for a couple of hours biking up and down the lanes, pedaling past statues, through big puddles while seeing water buffalo, egrets and cows and local people working in the fields.
Sorry this is blurry but I couldn't quite manage navigating my bike through this HUGE puddle while keeping my feet from getting soaked and take a clear photo of Steven at the same time!
The bar was literally set so low here, even we had to be careful as we rode under it.
Sort of thought this person looked like the Lone Ranger with the cowboy hat on as I rode by!
Photos from Kim Bong Market:
Steven was getting a little peckish by then so we stopped and he bought some small baguettes (French loaves of bread) to munch on at the market in Kim Bong.
Back on the ferry to Hoi An. The only other tourists we'd seen while on the island were on the ferry as we headed back to town - just the way we like it most of the time.
A very heavy load on the back of a motorbike.
Wanted to use up more of our cultural tickets before we left Hoi An so we stopped at the Fukien Chinese Congregation Assembly Hall which was built in 1757.
You can perhaps just see the smoke from the burning incense sticks.
Posted on 10/23 from Hanoi, Vietnam.
Looks like fun and nicely warm too, as we head into colder weather up here in Canada. Keep on yu guys!
ReplyDeleteYou 2 are more adventurous than I am. Keep up the biking. Lil Red
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