.: MENU goes East - Leaving Ha Long Bay, a visit to a Vietnamese village

On our way back to Hanoi, we were taken to a village to see the traditional Water Puppets. We also opted to take another tour to see how people of the village live and farm. It's a small village, quite middle class and very clean, especially when compared with the streets of Hanoi. We finished the day with a meal which we helped to make. A lovely experience

Back in port, we leave Dragon Legend. The crew waves us goodbye from the after deck

The happy band of relaxed passengers on the tender, all sad that the cruise has come to an end

Into our luxury vehicle, off to the day's first attraction, the water puppets

Across the bridge in searing midday heat

A cheery welcome

Some complimentary fruit and treats

The band played along to some recorded music

And the puppets appeared

We were told folk tales

About planting rice

and mystical birds

The ceiling of the grandstand, decorated with dried palm fronds

One of the tourists had this great shirt on

And another story

And finally the puppeteers appear in their fishing long johns and take a bow. To be honest, it was long and rather excruciating in the heat . It is apparently a very ancient art and they are justly proud of it. It is good that they have preserved the art

Then we climbed back into the bus and arrived at our typical village. The young folk were given bikes to ride. This family of lovely people came from Iceland. They are well travelled and the children were a delight to be with on the trip. The slightly older, us, were allowed to ride in a golf cart. The road was a bit bumpy, hence the rather unfocussed photograph

We passed orchids and beautiful flowers in the memorial garden

This is a shrine to guerrilla fighters (all from the three local villages) who were killed hiding from the French during the occupation. Most of them were killed as they were trapped in the cave behind this memorial

The memorial plaque tells the story. This happened on the 13th of December 1950

As we drove on, we drove past newly harvested rice which was put on the concrete road to dry out

Past the ripening rice paddies

The rice hanging heavy on the stems

It grows very tall here, almost to the shoulders of the people in the paddy

At the farm, we saw an ancient winnowing machine

Take a look at the rice chaff and grains

This machine separates them

Any volunteers for separating the chaff from the rice?

He is an expert

Then we saw the very primitive mill that beats the rice and separates the bran from it. It is operated by one man using the long pole as a seesaw with his feet. He stands on the cross bar. At the same time another risks his hands by pushing the rice in the mortar back under the pestle