Vietnam: Biking through Hoi An

Since our villa offered free bikes, Heather, Corianne and I took advantage of the free bikes as we rode around Hoi An. Holly had scheduled a country-side motorbike tour, so while Holly was off seeing the countryside, we went on our own countryside adventure. After grabbing the bikes, we decided to get a few pictures and ask if the villa had any Vietnamese hats we could use, they provide us with four hats. We were excited to look the part on a bike in Vietnam.

One of the cool things about the triangle Vietnam hats is that it is not just a souvenir that tourist buy, but the people really truly wear these hats. All over town, in the fields, people on bikes and old women standing by the road were keeping themselves protected from the sun and heat by wearing the triangle hats. I was expecting the hats to be heavy and awkward, but on the contrary, they were so light you almost didn’t feel them, and they were quite comfortable too, and let’s not forget how cute they look.

We asked the front desk if they had any recommendations for locations to cycle, and a few minutes later a man jumps on a motorcycle and we are informed to follow him.

Corianne wasn’t feeling well, and so we originally planned for a slow, leisure ride through rice fields and seeing a little bit of Vietnam in the rough. Instead, we find ourselves trying to keep up with the motorcycle not exactly sure where he is leading us. As we ride, another motorcycle comes up to our leader and they talk for a while, then the other motorcycle slows down and starts riding right next to Corianne. They talk a while and then the lady continues to trail us. About a half an hour later, we find ourselves stopped at a tourist trap. It’s the river village and to even walk in the village you have to pay money. The women on the motorcycle starts trying to sell us on a basket boat ride in her family’s boat. We just want to see the river and the boats, but they won’t let us in unless we pay the fee. We try to explain we just want to see so we can decide if we want to stay, but they will not let us pass. Corianne, Heather and I talk privately and laugh about riding all this way for a tourist trap, and decide to ditch our motorcycle self proclaimed guide and just ride around the fields we passed. We tell them we will come back later, so they would leave us alone.  There was a huge golden dragon at the entrance, so we snap some pictures then go back the way we came.

As we are riding, now at our intended slow and leisure pace, I notice that all along the road are tarps with brown stuff laid out on top of it.  At first I am not sure what I am looking at, until it clicks and I realize this is rice on the side of that road.  I heard once while growing up that rice is just laid on the road to dry, and I laughed at the though thinking how gross that would be.  But here I am seeing first hand tarp after tarp with rice laid right on the road.  In some spots, the rice was literally in the middle of a main road with the cars swerving around the tarps.  It was neat to see something I heard as a child actually be true.  

As we are riding back towards the rice fields I notice a small alley road where a large group of people are walking in and out. We stop, turn around and decide to try our luck down the mysterious ally. We find ourselves on a small dirt road following the river. The small path has so many fun and beautiful surprises. We find a small alcove that had a cute boat and a bunch of ducks.

We find ourselves enjoying the ride even more and we slow down and start to really take in the beauty of Vietnam. We aren’t met by many people, which leave us to enjoy the ride at our pace. We find some amazingly cute Vietnamese homes and buildings. The breeze from the river is perfect and there are so many trees that we are pretty cool and in the shade for most of our ride.

We ride the dirt river road for a while, until we make our way back to the main road, where we cross the street to ride down the rice fields.

There weren’t a ton of rice fields in this area, but with Cori sick and the dumb long ride to the tourist trap, we were pretty much spent. We did enjoy seeing some locals working in the rice. I was hoping to see water Buffalo up close in the rice fields working away, but it just wasn’t meant to be. We were close to the villa now, so we road back to the villa.  I’m so glad we found the dirt road, and were able to just enjoy our ride through Hoi An’s country via a river dirt road and a river field. Vietnam is so beautiful and breathtaking with all the green and flowers.