Da Nang, Part 1

The ship parked quite a way from Da Nang.  We opted, as usual, for a trip to a temple site.  We're beginning to think we should have called this trip "The Temple Tour of Twenty Fourteen".  More on the temples later, but first:  we left the dock with those who read the instructions knowing that the drive to the temples was almost two hours.  So, of course, half of the bus had an extra cup of coffee before the trip.

So, about halfway to the destination, people hadda go.  The guide said he'd stop if he could find a place with a decent bathroom, but as we looked around, all we saw was rice paddies and little roadside farm houses.  We pulled over to the side of the road.  The guide dashed into a farm house.  The guide dashed out and said the bathroom was acceptable and we were all invited to hop off the bus and see real Vietnamese rural life.

At home, making rice noodles, rice crackers and sesame-rice wrappers, was the lady of the house:

She spoke no English, but was delighted to see us and was more than happy to let 23 complete strangers tramp all over her property.  The rural people grow rice and nothing from the rice plant is wasted.  It provides people food, animal food, and fuel.  The beige stuff off to her right is a pile of dried rice hulls, which she is burning to provide the heat for cooking.

Out behind the little house, the family had a garden, growing vegetables and herbs.  The farm people believe in balance (it's Hindu, all should be in balance).  So we have plants and flowers growing, birds, fish in two ponds, a very large rabbit, three pigs, and the funniest-looking dog you've ever seen.  While a line formed at the bathroom (outside, by the way, in a separate stone building), many of us ate rice crackers and explored.  Here's recycling and balance at its best:

I don't have a picture of the other star of the show, the "wah wah bird".  In a cage in the garden, a robin-sized bird of unknown breed sat watching everyone.  Someone thought they heard the bird say "wah wah", so they walked over to check it out.  Then the fun began:  if you walked up to the cage and said "wah wah wah wah wah", the bird would puff itself all up, lower its head, and repeat back, sounding just like you..."wah wah wah wah wah".  Boy, did we give that poor bird a workout.

Here's the farmhouse.  The round things sitting up on the racks are sesame-rice wrappers, drying in the sun. On the table, rice noodles.  We had to go on although everyone hated to leave!  Our new friend, the lady of the house, made certain that everyone had tasted the crackers and watched us go, waving goodbye.

Probably the most fun stop of all the tours we took, and the most enlightening.