Hoi An

---

Took a cycle tour in the morning with Mr Cu, an excellent guide and a font of local knowledge. We were joined by a Belgian family of 6. If clicking through 21 gears on your racing cycle, travelling at enormous speeds is your thing then this tour is definitely not for you. It was more of a gentle amble through the countryside. First stop was in a rice paddy to plough a bit of field with a water buffalo, then plant a bit of rice then ride the water buffalo. They have an odd gait which makes staying on the beast a bit more difficult than it looks. Our next stop was at a fishing village where we took Coracle type boats out fishing for crabs among the water coconuts. Then it was back to Mr Cuts house the make little omelettes to put in the rice paper rolls that we made for lunch, delicious. The tour ended around 1.30pm so I walked back in to the old town for another round of photo taking and people watching. The street vendors in the photo accosted me saying "mama very hungry, you buy fruit", I wondered briefly why, if she was hungry, she didn't eat the fruit, but I guess that's like eating your invested capital. Anyway, with a pitch like that what are you going to do? So I asked if I could take a photo as well, she rose to her full 4'9", brushed her hair back, set her coolie hat at a rakish angle and gave me her best smile. I bought some lychees and the diminutive rogue charged me roughly 5 bucks for them but I'd have paid twice that just for the photo so we both went away happy. Went to Vy's market for dinner, a great place, you can wander around all the different stations checking out what's on offer. Took a last wander along the waterfront and checked out a photgraphy exhibition by Rehahn, a French photographer famous for his pictures of Vietnamese women, some of the photos are absolutely stunning.

---