Hoi An

 Hoi An 

And another hot day. We met up outside a temple to start our cycle tour of a traditional rural village culture.

The entrance to the temple...

...the bridge over the lake...

...the temple itself...

...and a detail of the lake inside the complex.

We were soon out of the old city centre and cycling along cycle tracks...

...crossing a large network of canals.

We stopped and looked at some of the crops cultivated. This is rice. The farmers here can grow two crops a year but can't grow anything when it floods, usually for just a few days some time in October to December

Nothing is wasted. After the rice is removed from the stem, the rest is used as hay for animal fodder. The rice is removed from the husks and the husks are used as fuel.

There were banana trees everywhere. They propergate themselves by throwing up a youngster from the roots. However older trees don't bear fruit and the canopy will provent the yougster from growing. Therefore after a year or two the old tree is chpped down and the younster will grow and bear fruit. The age of a banana plantation can be deduced by how straight the rows of trees are. New plantations have neat straight rows of trees. The youngster will start growing out of the ground besides the parent. The old tree is chopped down and in turn the youngster will throw up another youngster itself. 

Over time, the neat row of trees has become an unordered forest. For ease of harvesting and making maximum use of the land, after several years, the youngsters will be dug up and replanted in neat rows and the process starts all over again.

A coconut tree. There are both young fruit and mature fruits on the same tree. Removal of the larger fruits give space for the smaller ones to grow. The top is chopped off and a straw put in to make a soft drink. Some people are surprised at how much milk can be stored in a single coconut. Inside the husk, ther can be a soft white flesh but its taste and thickness varies between species. Another species of coconut are grown commercially for oil extraction

No space is wasted. Some floating nets holding fish raised for human consumption.

Our next stop was at a traditional house. The central section is the most important that holds the altar and remembrance items od deceased family members. 

Traditional houses have three sections, the central one for the altar and sleeping spaces either side. Much of the cooking and house hold activities take place outside in a yard or under an open sided hut like structure.

The eldest son was a carpenter and wood carver. He worked from home in the yard or under cover in the rain or when the sun was too strong. It is tradition that the eldest son stays at home to look after his parents until they die. His wife will move in with him and undertake the household duties.

Some of the items that he had made, all by hand tools.

A coconut boat, not made from coconuts but called such due to the shape. It is made from weaved grasses or strips of bamboo around a frame. It doesn't have a keel and looks unstable but it does the job of crossing a canal, small rover or tending to the fishnets. But it is impractical for long journeys or for use in rough seas.

I had seen several pieces of bagasse drying in the sun. This is sugar cane. The cane is crushed and using hot water, the sugars are extracted. The liquid is drained off and the wet cane is crushed again to extract the last drops of moisture. The water is bioled off and there is just sugar left. Commercially, the raw sugar is further refined to obtain a white product. The waste from this process is molassses, used in some cookery but often just fed to cattle.

The outer husks of coconuts. Nothing is wasted. These can be used as fuel but they have another use. Everyone keeps chickens and they have a habit of scratching at the ground to find worms and bugs. In the farmyard, this might not be a problem but in a market garden area or seedling area, it can disrupt the growth of the plants. Crushed coconuts can be used to stop them scratching at the ground. 

I had to press for more inforamtion to check that I had understood correctly. I thought that more fibre in the soil would retain more moisture and encourage bugs. The copra in the husk is fibre but insects apparently don't like it and avoid it, finding other places to live. Hence the chickens don't find anything to eat and learn that scratching copra rich areas is not rewarding and so avoid it. A gardening friend told me that plants grown in copra rich compost suffer less bug and disease attacks, which is more anocdotal evidence of its effectiveness but I was unabe to establish any scientific support for this use of coconut husks.

We cycled on to our next experience. It was an exercise in making rice noodles and rice paper. The process is the same but noodles are thicker and easier to make...rice paper is more delicate and requires more skill.

                                        

The rice is ground in a small stone mill to produce a flour.

Equal proportions of rice and water are required. They are mixed thoroughly several times and left to soak in between to produce a milk like substance.

Then it was time to cook the milk. There is a large cauldron full of boiling water to produce steam. The fire was fed by scooping bucketfuls of rice husks from a hopper next to the stove. Over the top of the cauldron was a frame with linen stretched across the top.

The idea is that just one scoop of the milk rice mix is spread evenly over the linen, is covered with a lid for 30 seconds and allowed to cook. If expertly done, evenly spread, and delicately removed, it produces rice paper. The chef was an expert, afterall she was in her eighties and had been doing this all her life. The pancake shaped pieces were irregular and some had an occasional hole or tear but they were useable and bought by the local villagers.

For noodles, a second scoop of rice milk is added and allowed to steam for another 30 seconds. Then it is a delicate maneuvre to use just a stick to get the pancake loose from the linen and to spread it across some bamboo canes to dry.

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Everybody had a job in the village. As the eldest, he stayed at home to look after his mom and dad, although they were both in their eighties and looked nimble and full of good health.

We were given some extra treats. These were rice cakes. They consisted of a top and bottom deep fried crispy rice wafer with a mash of cooked rice flour in between. They were served as a savoury dish with soy sauce to make them more palattable.  They were different and edible but not something that I would go out of my way to find and buy again.

Thes wre some cassava roots drying in the sun.

Our next stop was at a weavers shop. He was just one of three families that still make mats. They are principally used to sleep on in the summer. Beds are too hot and the floor is too sweaty to sleep on but the mats allow some air flow.

The mats are made using five colours that represent the five elements, wood, fire, metal, water and earth. The y are made from river grass which is cut, split and dyed.

And then it was back on the bikes and we cycled home. The cycle bridge across the river back to the centre of town.