We Live In The Country!: agritourism

Friday, May 1, 2015

Good Morning Vietnam, Part 4: Fishing off Hoi An!

In my previous post, I talked about the first "agritourism" or "ecotour" tour we did during out recent, month-long trip through Vietnam (thanks to Vietnam Central Coastal Tourism!): Wet Rice Farming with Water Buffalo, and how awesome it was! The second one, also with Jack Tran's Ecotours, was Fishing and 'Palm Paradise', and it was great fun, as well!

Elisse casts her fishing net!

As Dan and I like "active" excursions, where we can actually "do" things and learn stuff, we deliberately chose these two excursions, (which the Nam Hai Resort had sent us information on, prior to our arrival), as they were truly unique, and allowed us to not only learn about traditional Vietnamese agricultural practices, but to actually DO them, and have a lot of fun in the process! I've wanted to go to sea in a basket fishing boat ever since seeing them on the shore in Qui Nhon back in 2008 (see my blog posts on our trip through Vietnam after April 2008), and this time I got my chance! And they are amazing (and fun) little boats!
We started the day in the dockyard, watching people repair and do maintenance on the fishing boats, including Jack's. While our rice farm tour was given by another member of the team, Jack himself gave us this tour, as his expertise is in fishing, coming from a multi-generational fishing family that lives in this area.

In the dockyard...

Traditional Vietnamese basket fishing boats...

Elisse and Dan, ready to fish!

Ready to fish- with a cooler full of beer! :-)

View from our boat...

Then we took a basket fishing boat out to Jack's boat, and went out to sea, where a charming (and extremely patient) older fishing couple demonstrated and then taught us to cast the fishing nets! It was amazing to see them toss the huge net, seemingly effortlessly, into a giant flower- and it was incredible to then try to do it and not totally fail at it!

The fishing couple who taught us to cast the nets...

Watching the net being perfectly cast...

How it's SUPPOSED to look...

Elisse gets ready to swing and cast the net...

Elisse casts the net!

"Palm Paradise"

Basket boat fun!

Elisse with her crown of palms, rowing in circles...

A barge full of palms, soon to be a roof... "Palm Paradise"...

Totally adorable!

Happy Dan! Our delicious seafood lunch on board!

Stuffed squid- Elisse in seafood heaven!

This is why we love to travel!

We had a truly delicious seafood lunch on board, including excellent stuffed squid- and we were both stuffed by the time we were finished!

Our boat...

Back at the lighthouse...

We raised and lowered the fishing net by pedaling with our feet!

Dan folds the net between his fingers...

Docking, we went on shore, climbed up into the stand, and, pedaling like mad, raised and lowered the net with our feet! Then we ran down to see if we'd actually netted any fish!

Dan's catch!

...

readies the net...

We had a great day with Jack and highly recommend this tour, too. He offers truly unique and well-planned tours that not only enable tourists to have fun while learning about traditional Vietnamese agriculture, they help his community by providing income and prosperity to the residents. The delightful (and patient!) fishing couple who taught us to cast the nets, as well as Jack, his assistant, and "Capt. Cook", were all good-natured, and seemed to genuinely enjoy the day, and how much pleasure we derived from the experience.

...and Dan casts the fishing net!

Yes, these tours are "Must Dos" when you go to Vietnam!

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Good Morning Vietnam, Part 3: Wet Rice Farming with Water Buffalo!

The first "tours" we did during out recent, month-long trip through Vietnam (thanks to Vietnam Central Coastal Tourism!) were arranged for us by the wonderful concierges at the Nam Hai Resort where we were fortunate enough to stay- see my first post in the series, which is totally devoted to the 5 delightful nights we spent there! As Dan and I like "active" excursions, where we can actually "do" things and learn stuff, the two we chose to do were with Jack Tran's Ecotours: Wet Rice Farming with Water Buffalo, and Fishing and Palm Paradise!

These both turned out to be excellent, and truly unique excursions, providing not only the opportunity to learn about traditional Vietnamese agriculture, but to actually DO it, which was a LOT of fun!
When we were in Vietnam in 2008 and saw children fording the rivers on the back of water buffalo, I ached to join them- it looked like such fun! And this time I got the chance to do it, and it WAS fun!
The first tour we took was Wet Rice Farming, and as a picture speaks a thousand words, and I have a thousand photos, I'll pretty much let them do the talking!

We started out by bicycling through the beautiful Vietnamese countryside and rice fields outside of Hoi An- a hoot, since neither of us had ridden a bike for Decades! But it IS true what they say- no matter how old you get, you don't forget how to do it! LOL
Once we got to the farm we had tea, and then took off our shoes and changed into "farming clothes", and began to learn about traditional rice farming by actually DOING it! We first learned how to ride a water buffalo, which was incredibly fun! I found it SO much fun, in fact, that they let me keep riding him, around and around the pond! Then we learned how to till the mud with the buffalo (getting a "mud spa foot treatment" in the process!), taking turns leading the buffalo and plowing. Then we raked the mud smooth, and prepared it for sowing by "water buffalo surfing" on a wooden plank, holding on to the buffalo's tail! . Then we sowed rice, and moved water by swinging baskets in unison- which is a Lot harder than it looks! And finally we learned how to harvest and process rice the traditional way, using a foot-pedal thrasher, a stone grinder, and baskets for tossing and winnowing!

Getting ready to farm!

We snacked on traditional banana-leaf wrapped sticky rice rolls dipped in salt, and made Vietnamese crepes with bean sprouts, and then went inside for a wonderful lunch. Our only disappointment was that we were looking forward to riding the bicycles back to town- and working off that lunch!- but the trip back was by car!

Dan rides a water buffalo!

Dan buffalo surfs!

This was an excellent and truly unique day, and definitely worth doing, especially if you really want to learn something about traditional Vietnamese agriculture AND have a great, fun time doing it! Our guide and the farmers who worked with us were super nice, incredibly patient, and obviously enjoyed the fact that we were having such a good time trying to do everything correctly! Jack and his guides are doing something really excellent, both for tourists and his community, by sharing their knowledge of and love for the traditional and extraordinary things the area offers. We highly recommend Jack’s tours and wish him much success!