What I liked about our trip is that it regularly went off the beaten track. We visited two villages in the countryside near Hanoi.
We went to the Tay Phuong Pagoda and the rice fields in the village around it. First we cycled through the rice fields. I was amazed at how meek the cows were. You could just cycle past them.
Our guide Hai grew up in a rice village and could give us a very detailed explanation of life in a village. We were mainly surprised by the fact that people still do so many things by hand. Hai explained to us they are too poor to buy machines.
Can you see how clever the woman protects herself from the heat? She uses banana tree leaves to cover herself.
Then we went to the pagoda. We climbed a lot of stairs and enjoyed peace in the surroundings of the temple. I really love all the things the Vietnamese offer to their gods. We even spotted Red Bull.
Duong Lam
In the afternoon we went to the village Duong Lam. I love our lunch place. Our lovely host cooked us a gorgeous meal. Her house was so nice. It was an ancient house with the most lovely inner yard.
She also followed EURO2016, as many Vietnamese apparently. This surprised us a great deal. She even knew Eden Hazard!
Do you want to discover more about Vietnam? Read what we did.
