Tuesday, Oct 25 - Cocly Market, Chay River Ride, Drive to Hanoi

We headed out for a two hour drive across the Vietnamese countryside.

Along the way we noticed a lot of corn being grown on the steep hillsides.  Very different from the US Midwest.  Obviously it all had to be hand planted and, eventually, hand harvested. 

On the way we were given a lesson in Vietnamese.  Then we had an unexpected stop to give Paul a break to let his car sickness settle.  Fortunately we stopped near a house where they were making rice wine so we got an impromptu tour of the operation.  

They also had some pigs being fattened up in a nearby shed.

Across the road was another house where they had machinery used to take the hull off of the rice kernels so we got a nice little demonstration of that.  

Tom, our guide, bought a bottle of the rice wine for his father and the bag of hulled rice.

Then we headed off to Cocly to the very interesting and colorful market. We saw farmers shopping for water buffalo...

and lots of merchants with beautiful Flower Hmong clothing and goods.  

The people watching here was pretty good as well.

After buying some colorful bags we headed to the Chay River for an hour boat ride.  The ride was beautiful and the landing was a bit of a challenge.

Bailing water from the boat.

After a so so lunch we headed out for an hour ride to catch another ride.  Tara was able to arrange for a van to come up from Hanoi to pick us up and drive us back.  So tonight we don’t have to take the long, bumpy sleepless train ride back.  Much appreciated.