160607 – 170707 Days 14 & 15
Woke up at 6am to get ready for our trip to Hoa Binh province. The bus ride took about 2 hrs and we first went to explore a hydroelectric plant, which is kind of magnificent to me as I have not seen such a plant before. Then we went to visit the gigantic Ho Chin Minh statue and took many pics there as the scenery is very nice due to the mountainous surroundings. Our lunch was at a resort-styled hotel but we only had lunch there. A special feature of the lunch had to be the bamboo rice, which is quite tasty when ate together with the peanut.
The Guys acting Cute
After lunch was another hour of bus ride to the village we are supposed to spend a night. The house we stayed in is called a still-house, which is the type of house the ethnic minority still stays in. The still-house is mainly made of wood materials, and its structure is such that it keeps the interior cool though the weather is so warm. We played bridge in the house for about one hour before deciding to move our butts to explore the village.
The Village
7 of us walked together around the village. Scenery was nice as we see clouds within mountains, fields where the farmers worked, pond, cows & chickens… and it’s fun to take pics along the way. Then it started to rain so we took refuge under one of the still house. Then a guy came over to offer us chairs to sit. We were thinking that’s so nice of him since we kind of intruded their place. He then gave us many corns and we started to help him peel off the corns. Accordingly, the corns are used to feed the pigs they rear. And we thought it’s so fun peeling the corns while waiting for the rain to stop. And we took pics too! After peeling many corns, the rain stopped and he invited us to enter his house. And I was shocked to see a hi-fi set and a Sanyo fridge. Haha. They are very hospitable, made me feel ashamed that such hospitality will not be experienced in Spore. He offered us wine to drink and tidbits to eat, even on the fan for us, and we kind of chatted with him and had a great time there! It’s one of the best unexpected adventure I have experienced here so far.
We went back for dinner and we had a campfire after dinner. It’s a night where we enjoy the traditional dance and music of the ethnic minority, followed by a Bamboo dance which is the highlight of the night. It’s fun to catch the rhythm of the bamboo to avoid the feet being caught by it. Then we had some games which reminded me of NBS camp and our team lost! But it’s fun though, and some of the guys imcluding me kena flagpoled. Ouch!
After campfire, it’s a free night for all and we basically played games among our groups. So the group of us played some games and there was forfeit of course. Jasmine and Adelyn are the most sway ones, they did like 3 or 4 forfeits, until we cant think of any for them to do. Then after being tired and sian of games, it’s ghost story time. We went to a dark corner to share stories. But I was really very very tired, basically not listening attentively to them, so I went to sleep halfway. Zzz.
Sunday morning we had a visit to the local wet market. Then we returned to our house and the group of u went to find the villager again as we wanted to give him a bottle of wine in return as we finished up his wine yesterday. And this time we met his sister and mother. They are so nice. Took some pics at his house again.
With Villager, his Mum & Sis
Went back for lunch, took some final pics around the house and we left around noon to go back to Hanoi. We had a hellish bus ride, one of the worst I experienced which made me carsick, and really sick throughout the ride, and some of them had the same nauseous feeling. It’s so nice to be back in our air-con dorm :)
Love this Pic Alotz
