A Bicycle Ride through the Paddies

What better way to slow down and really experience the landscape than to leisurely  ride a bicycle! Such was our adventure today, from the landing at the Tay Phong pagoda, through lush green fields of rice, with scattered scarecrows and tombs of long passed ancestors, along gravel covered roads lined with wildflowers. We passed through small dusty villages with low brick laterite buildings, complete with chickens and school children on their way home for lunch, yelling "hello". We rode through farms, villages gates; past wells and 700 year old banyan trees. We shared the road with other travelers on motor scooters, trucks and other bike riders before turning onto a quiet dirt lane above the rice paddies. Here we could stop by the side of the road and absorb the vast exotic stretches of rice, corn, sugar cane and even peanut plantings. As we continued our ride, we saw and smelled duck farms for the production of eggs. Ducks do not incubate their eggs; chickens do that for them... and only lay them at night. So during the day, they are loose in the fields and in shallow ponds.

We continued riding on a dike between more paddies and a canal, finally emerging back in the village we started from. What a great experience, and we got to do it all over again after a delicious lunch in a private home owned by the same Vietnamese family for five generations. The home was in the UNESCO village of Duong Lam, home of an ancient entry gate, fishbone alleyways and countless dead ends. We also were guests of a tea house where we enjoyed a nice hot cup as a gentle ran began to fall. What an absolutely wonderful day in the life of our Profundo Journeys Vietnam photography workshop!