After a good night's sleep we had a leisurely breakfast and we got ready for our cycle tour. Unfortunately the bikes at the lodge were all adult sized. Luckily our brilliant guide Jackie came to the rescue and organised the kids bikes from a bike rental store.
With all of on bikes we set up. But just as we set up, a gust of wind blew Maxine's hat off, and as she tried to catch it she fell over and hurt her leg. This resulted with some small cuts and bruises on her leg. Luckily the Vietnamese bike are designed to carry passengers on the back of the bike and they even have foot rests. Tati to the rescue and Maxine hitched a ride the rest of the way with daddy.
Once we got ourselves all sorted, again, we set off, again! Jackie took us on a gorgeous tour of the surrounding area. It took us through the rice paddies, and along the canals. Along the way we took a whole bunch of pictures and learnt more about rice cultivation. With the weather in Vietnam, they are able to sow and harvest the rice twice a year. First one is from February to the end of May, and then again from June to the end of September. The last few months are too cold for the rice to grow but the farmers are able to grow other vegetables instead. The farmers use the wet-rice method, meaning that they use flooded fields to grow their rice. They first plant the seeds in a small area to grow "young rice" (in 1/10 of the field) and then they pull the rice out, dry out the land, re-plough it with buffalo, reflood it and replant the rice plants. It's a labour intensive process.
Near the end of our bike tour we stopped at one of the canals/rivers and went on a rowing boat excursion. Our little metal boat was rowed by an elderly woman, who amazingly used her feet to do most of the rowing! They also row whilst facing forwards, so it’s a good thing that we did not try doing it ourselves, as the trip might have taken 4x as long!
The rowing trip was absolutely amazing! The scenery was not only breath-taking but also incredibly peaceful. We were told that this area is known as "Dry Ha Long Bay" and we could see why that was, as the rock formations are so similar to the ones in Ha Long Bay. And instead of the water, there is a sea of green rice paddies. However, the best part of the trip was going through 2 sets of caves. It was so dark that the rowing lady had to put on a head lamp to see where to go.
After the amazing rowing trip, we had a leisurely ride back to town where we dropped off the kids bikes and had a late lunch of Vietnamese baguettes. Another yummy meal. As we had such a busy and active morning, we decided to head back to the lodge to get some schooling done and to relax by the pool.
Once we started to get hungry, we got back on the bikes (with the kids on the back) and cycled back into town. There we walked around before getting our dinner from the recommended restaurant call "Family Restaurant" (how original). We got to try out the local speciality: Goat! Mish and the girls loved it, while Robyn was not the biggest fan. What is great is that the whole family is adventurous and trying new things all the time!
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