With a bike ($1 to rent it!) I have gone on an adventure in the surroundings and not turistic areas of Hoi An. The people living in these areas is very poor, mostly farmers, and they are very happy to share some time with the few Westeners that appear on their door.
With Phoun’s help, my guide, I left the crowded ancient town of Hoi An and its shops to get to some villages where people live with the minimum. On the way I spoke with a woman that was cutting something in very small pieces, to realise it was banana tree wood, the only thing Vietnamese people was able to eat during the war, and now used by poor people to add some flavour to their meals.
Riding through the jungle we stopped outside of a house where some coconuts were on the floor. Then the family came and offered us to get some fresh coconuts from the trees and open them with a massive machete to drink the water they contained (in the picture). They were very poor, but offered what they had.
We spoke with a farmer that was working on his vegetable garden. He used empty Tiger beer cans to create artifacts that produce noise when moved by the wind to scare the birds.
On the way I crossed water buffalos, ducks, chickens, goats, cows and lots of big insects.
I got to see some houses (if you can call it that) where locals live. Eating and sleeping on the floor, carrying water tanks to have purified water, and working hard their land so they can have something to feed their children.
Tomorrow I am leaving the countryside of Vietnam. I am taking a plane to get to Ho Chi Minh (if weather allows, today flights were cancelled).
