On our final full day in Vietnam, we set out for the countryside with our new bike guide, Dan. We started from his home, where he served us tea and introduced us to his son. Dan is a lovely guy who enjoys biking more than anything else. And he knows his way around the roadways and paths for miles around. He was a terrific host for the day, and took us through miles and miles of vegetable gardens growing cabbages, rice seedlings (that later get transplanted to the paddies), lettuce, broccoli, corn, cilantro, and many other crops. All the fields were orderly and well maintained. And, as in the Mekong, the stone and tile graves of the ancestors are poised in clusters in the middle of the fields. Interestingly, people are initially buried in mounds in the fields. After 3 to 5 years, their remains are exhumed by the eldest son and “cleaned” by professionals before being arranged properly in ceramic boxes and buried in the family tomb.
Mike (our American guide who has been with us since day one) has trained Dan to show us the really local things. So he took us on paths right beside people working in the fields – so that the people ask him “why do you bring them here instead of on the roads?” And we stopped at a local festival in honor of a village’s founding. The people there were eager for us to join them for lunch, but we couldn’t (because our Hot Pots were waiting for us—see below). They insisted we enter their temple and drink their tea, and they gave us each a package of crackers when we finally got up to leave. Dan also took us to a traditional home. He just walked in and asked the owner if we could see it! He’d never met the guy before! We sat down for tea but the owner’s stove wasn’t working so he only could serve water, which we all pretended to drink!
We stopped for a lunch of “hot pot” – a broth that is heated on the table. You then add meat or fish and lots of vegetables to the pot, and take them out to eat them with some of the broth. It’s delicious, though a bit chaotic. We all had a little bit of beer as well as a taste of the local rice wine, which is really more like a brandy – 40% alcohol! Dan, like many Asian people, is allergic to alcohol. But he likes it anyway. His face turned quite red and he became even more voluble than he already was. He talked and talked (his English is very good) — lots of stories about Vietnamese culture. We were with Dan from about 9 to 5 when we got back to his house, he wanted us to stay for more beer but we begged off, eager for some shopping in the Old Quarter in Hanoi. But it was a great day, and we all wished Dan well (though hoping that he doesn’t drink too much!)
Mike (our American guide who has been with us since day one) has trained Dan to show us the really local things. So he took us on paths right beside people working in the fields – so that the people ask him “why do you bring them here instead of on the roads?” And we stopped at a local festival in honor of a village’s founding. The people there were eager for us to join them for lunch, but we couldn’t (because our Hot Pots were waiting for us—see below). They insisted we enter their temple and drink their tea, and they gave us each a package of crackers when we finally got up to leave. Dan also took us to a traditional home. He just walked in and asked the owner if we could see it! He’d never met the guy before! We sat down for tea but the owner’s stove wasn’t working so he only could serve water, which we all pretended to drink!
We stopped for a lunch of “hot pot” – a broth that is heated on the table. You then add meat or fish and lots of vegetables to the pot, and take them out to eat them with some of the broth. It’s delicious, though a bit chaotic. We all had a little bit of beer as well as a taste of the local rice wine, which is really more like a brandy – 40% alcohol! Dan, like many Asian people, is allergic to alcohol. But he likes it anyway. His face turned quite red and he became even more voluble than he already was. He talked and talked (his English is very good) — lots of stories about Vietnamese culture. We were with Dan from about 9 to 5 when we got back to his house, he wanted us to stay for more beer but we begged off, eager for some shopping in the Old Quarter in Hanoi. But it was a great day, and we all wished Dan well (though hoping that he doesn’t drink too much!)
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