30 September 2015 –
Ready for a nice walk? I sure need to stretch out my legs.
Dead snake…poisonous? Not sure.
Checking out the vegetation and the scattered houses that dot the hillside:
Bamboo!
So…do you see the holes in the bamboo? Those were made by people trying to extricate the bamboo worms inside them. Apparently bamboo worms are tasty fried. Hmmm….I'll go ahead and leave that one alone.
We saw lots of different kinds of flowers and vegetation, like blue bottlebrush, purple ageratum (which Tuan said is used as healing herb), indigo plants (to make the indigo dye the locals use), sticky rice plants, and hemp (yes, hemp).
We watched people harvesting rice, thrashing it to separate the seed to the husk, drying the seeds on mats and tarps, and then carrying heavy looking bags of rice back to their homes. Here you can see them trekking up the hill with bags of rice:
There are several different ethnic groups that live in this region of Vietnam.
Take a closer at this house- pumpkins and winter squash growing on the roof. We saw lots of houses and buildings with winter squash growing on them as well. Pretty clever way to keep pests away.
Do you see the hazy air? That's due to the farmers burning the leftover rice grass (that was separated from the grain).
Tuan tried to tell us about the pole in front of this house and how it shows others that there is a new baby in the house. I really can't remember the details:
Watching the farmers dealing with the rice: Watching a young man haul this table down the hill, to his home. Looks heavy!
Hazy air:
We got picked up by the van and were driven to our end destination. On the drive we saw a water buffalo, recently deceased (I assume), being butchered right on the road.
The lodge was a 5-minute walk from the end of the walk and over a swing bridge (over a river). And there is this beautiful wooden house right next to the rapidly running river.
The girls' bedroom
And right after this crazy happy photo of Annika was taken she saw an ENORMOUS spider – about the size of my hand – on the floor. Shriek!!!! I'm thinking this will be a sleepless night. It really scared the beejeebers out of us! Luckily the spider had the gall to show up and Mark smashed the heck out of it. So maybe there's hope for us getting some sleep tonight.
Here's that swing bridge across the river:
Check out this interesting wooden tables. I love the base!
The beautiful dining table (downstairs…bedrooms and bathroom our upstairs):
Going for a quick stroll outside:
It's getting dark but here's a view of the lodge from the bridge:
Dinner! There was too much food: fried spring rolls, steamed chayote (which is kind of boring), fish, pork with rice, and oranges (for dessert).
Here's Tuan discussing tomorrow's itinerary:
For whatever reason, Tuan and the lodge hostess (this place is billed as a "home stay") did not eat dinner with us. We were the only visitors and it was eerily quiet.
Time for bed! I'm not sure I'll be able to sleep – even though we have this net to cover us and the fresh air was, well, refreshing!
Oh, here's a look at one of the bathrooms. I know, maybe it's weird that I'm posting a photo of the BATHROOM but I find them amusing. Plus, I love the utilitarian modern with rustic look. However, in the middle of the night there were some giant bugs, spiders and moths flying around. I watched as a giant moth got nabbed by one of those giant spiders. Eep. Still gives me chills!!!!
Nighty night. Hope you sleep tight! (I know I won't be sleeping much!!!!)