Christmas in Mai Chau. Day Two.

On the second day of Christmas, we went for a guided walking tour of several of the nearby villages. All were close enough to walk to from the hotel.

We saw local artisans hard at work and bought several lovely pieces of fabric as wall hangings.

These women were packing away the discarded rice stalks to use as mulch
for growing mushrooms. Nothing goes to waste.
We had local mushrooms in many of the dishes we ate
over the weekend, and they were delicious.

We also saw a chicken taking an ash bath. Very good for the skin.

And a man taking his chicken for a walk.

Turned out he was actually taking it to the fights.

This guy is fishing by hand, not swimming.

His wife shows off his catch. It's all in the wrist.

The setting is lovely and serene.



The landscape reminded us of the Vietnam we've always pictured--
rice paddies, water buffalo, and barefoot peasants toiling in conical hats.
They still live that way.

Other than the ubiquitous motorbikes,
there's remarkably little in the way of machinery.

But those motorbikes do come in handy.

Bamboo is used for everything. Telephone poles...

water pipes...

shovel handles. (Okay, those aren't bamboo, but we saw
some later that were, and this is a better picture.)

In the afternoon, we biked through still more little villages.


The late afternoon light was truly magical.

Then we went back to the lodge and relaxed before dinner--a delicious bbq: chicken, lamb, sausages. We met some interesting people: a couple Greek guys on holiday, and a young Australian/Swedish couple. Good conversations, good mojitos. And that was the morning and the evening of the second day.

P.