Today we went on an electric scooter tour of Hoi An. We started out and went to a private home where the lady was making rice crackers, these were delicious and she makes them for restaurants, about 200 a day. They are used to eat with salad, you break the cracker into pieces, pop a bit of salad on top and eat it that way.

We went and had a look at the boats and were meant to visit a ship repair place, but it had moved. This is Trevor testing a ‘monkey’ bridge. Apparently, according to our guide, they use iron wood in making their boats and they smear buffalo poo between the joins to make it water tight and strong.

This seasame and peanuts – they grow them together, inside the pods were seasame seeds. The white seeds we mainly use are young, and the black ones are when they are mature.

We then went to a shoe making place, it was just someone’s house, and it was chaos. Both Trevor and I had been measure for and had shoes made so was interesting to see where some of the shoes are made.

We then went to a lantern making house where a husband and wife made the traditional Hoi An lanterns, but I forgot to take any photos there. Again, they soak the bamboo for making the lanterns in buffalo poo and water, this makes the bamboo very strong and last longer. One of the ladies at the cooking school told us they bury the bamboo for making houses in mud and water to strengthen it.

Then we went off to visit a local organic community garden where they grow all their vegetables for themselves and to sell at the market.

There are small pools all around the garden from which the water is taken for hand watering, although they also use sprinkler systems as this particular garden gets a government subsidy. In the pools are fish to eat the mosquitoes, and when the fish are big enough the Gardeners eat the fish. The mint they have here is lovely, with very small leaves and it is tender and tasty. They spread a mix of buffalo poo and seaweed on the beds, leave it for three days and then plant it out. So buffalo poo is very useful it seems over here!

It was so fun riding the scooters around all the little alleyways and off the beaten track from what you would normally see on a tour as well as in amongst the chaotic traffic. Our guide was young but fun and full of knowledge.

Half way around the tour, we stopped at a Vietnamese cafe and had a drink, Trev’s bike was swapped for one with a bit more power left in the battery. The owner of the cafe was a older man who collected antiques, he took us into his home to show us, they were beautifully displayed and he was very proud of them.

My scooter started losing power so I swapped with the guide and the support guy pushed him along with his foot while we were driving, hilarious we only just made it back to the depot.

It was, once again, so hot and so when we got back to the resort, a cocktail by the pool was in order.

Something to do with the moon, there was a lantern night in town that we went in to see, was really pretty with the lights and boats floating on the water.