Boats and Bikes in Hoi-An by Eashan

We met our guide early in the morning, after a delicious buffet, including eggs, pancakes, fruit, toast and yoghurt. Our guide, Tong, was super smiley. He showed us our bikes and off we went speedily flying down alleyways or zipping past red traffic lights, along with the whole of Vietnam.

We soon got to our first out pitstop. We had paused by some fields. On the other side of the field we spotted a water buffalo. Slowly, it made its way towards us and we realised that we were going to ride it. I was first to ride it. I jumped on and felt it’s cold wet skin from the river. I held on as the driver also hopped on. He held into the animal and off we went.

We waded through some shallow water of a stream nearby before going up the steep bank. Then we turned around and came back the same way. Then it was Arushi’s turn and then Millen and then mum. Finally dad had his go and once again, off we went.

We soon came to an organic farm. The organic farm one of five in Vietnam. Tong led us through a path to a small hut where iced tea and sweet potato were laid out for us. After filling our bellies, we all headed to the last stop of our tour. A boat ride in some basket boats!

Basket boats are simply boats that look like baskets. We set off passing an army of similar boats before coming to a show where a performer was on a basket boat spinning it like crazy. When he stopped, he invited us into the boat where he then started spinning us round and round. Once we got off we were all really dizzy but we were very excited. We then went to the side of the river to do some crab fishing, however Arushi and I didn’t on account of our vegetarianism. The others caught no crabs anyway. We soon set off again and arrived back where we started to have lunch and then cycled back home.

We headed out for a wander in the old town again later. Always so much to see especially all the lovely lanterns!Read more