Queen of the Mountain: Part 2

It takes awhile to upload posts, so I thought I had better slice this one up.  Who knew I would have so much so tell you and we have only just reached lunch time!

So.....we had lunch here, a local seafood restuarant, just loved it being on stilts over the water.

Fortunately, this time I didn't have to interview my lunch first, so I could look at the view.

Here's what I had, seafood noodles.  Really rather good.  But see the octopus, bottom right?, gave him a miss because he gave me a funny look ;-)

 

Even the smallest room can look picturesque ;-)

 

If I knew what they were maybe I might have been tempted to buy you some?

 

The afternoon was spent cycling through the paddy fields.  

So I got to have my Julia Roberts' moment after all - think 'Eat, Pray, Love', NOT 'Pretty Woman'!!  

 

Agriculture in Vietnam is very labour intensive,

 

although they can always rely on the ducks to do some weeding and keep the paddy slug free. 

The ploughing is sometimes done by hand or if they have one, pulled by a water buffalo.  (Apologies for the bottoms, these ones were having a day off!)

 

However the farming elite have...

 

..one of these - a paddy tractor!

and here it is in action.

Water buffalo seem a gentle creature, but like any other animal I am sure they have their moments!

Animals and poultry wandering into the road are a constant hazard when cycling through rural Vietnam.  I have had a chicken hell bent on decapitation by bike wheel and goats determined I should be the one to tumble (I didn't Mum, don't worry ;-) )

Now this scene got us all off our bikes, and caused the lady in question to loose count.  She was selling 2000 little frogs, and wasn't going to give more than she was being paid for!

Thought you'd might like a close up, they are no bigger that your thumb nail.

On this farm they breed the baby frogs and then sell them on for others to fatten up.

Vietnamese city life can be as manic as anywhere, but rural Vietnam takes it at a slower pace, 

But these ducks seem as busy as only ducks can be.

On and on we cycled, through many small villages, including one where everyone grew mushrooms!

Our 80km had crept up to nearly 95 km, but the heat of the day was fading ( a bit) , there was plenty of shady leaf cover and the going was flat.  We rode straight into the hotel ( actually no, we rode straight into the basement garage) 

Aaaagh, the bliss of an air conditioned room!

and a pretty sunset to round off the day.

We all went out together for dinner as tomorrow we shall be catching the train to Hanoi, so here we all are L - R - me, Lám, Lŷ, Tân, Thông, Mariangela and Matt and for once I actually have spelt all the Vietnamese names correctly!  

This is what I had for dinner

Duck!