Fortunately, I was able to watch the stunning scenery as I rested. Never has illness been so scenic!
Our next stop was Long Duc Village - I had booked this "extension" on the Halong Bay Cruise without fully understanding what it was. All of our fellow passengers were going back to Hanoi and we were very nervous about sleeping in a rice hut that night -- particularly since I wasn't feeling well.
Happily we did not sleep on mats that night but were instead treated to an intensive 24-hour introduction to Vietnamese farm life, complete with deluxe accommodations and amazing meals.
We were the only guests at the farm. Thuy, our 28-year old guide was charming, and welcomed us with Vietnamese herbal tea ... a restorative blend which contained licorice and many other herbs I did not recognize.
We then did a three-hour tour of the village including a visit to Mr. The, a 78-year old who also served us herb tea and showed us his family tree and shrine. The highlight of this was a photo of his brother with Ho Chi Minh. His brother, now deceased, had served as body guard for "Uncle Ho."
The experience introduced us to Vietnamese Buddhism which is very complex and involves keeping keeping track of the ancestors with a full-wall family tree that records five generations of Mr. The's family.
On our walk through the village we discussed the plants that were growing...betel nut, betel leaf. Apparently the combination kept the villagers warm in the damp Hanoi winters when warm clothing was rare. We had quite a discussion about an herb I know as mugwort, and they know as sage grass. We covered the various fruits and vegetables growing in the fields as well as the farming techniques.
Thuy took us to a spot where a family demonstrated the old way of husking and milling rice. Today the farm uses machinery to accomplish this. (note: we were served the rice we husked in our breakfast porridge the following day).
We also saw how the villagers capture fish from the ubiquitous ponds (and were served the fish for dinner).
Our dinner at the farm did not disappoint and was even better (if that is even possible) than our cruise meals.
The following day we outfitted in Vietnamese straw hats and plastic raincoats and bicycled through the rice paddies (on concrete roads) to the local markets through the drizzle.
We visited another villager - a 76-yearold woman -- and stripped the green bits off of coconut fronds. These fronds went into brooms. Coconut brooms are needed in the north because they don't absorb water...winter sweeping.
Another gourmet lunch and we packed and attended the local water puppet show. Seeing the show in a "farm pond" seemed rather authentic...the charmng art form was apparently invented by farmers.
Back to Hanoi for some more practice walking calmly among moving motorcycles and on to the night train to Danang!
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