May 15

 

Alison and Moriah with a farmer friend

Today is day two in Vietnam! On the schedule today we are touring a few different farms and heading to Sapa. The weather today was 88 degrees Fahrenheit and extremely humid which felt very hot compared to yesterday. Starting off the morning, most of the students naturally woke up around 6 a.m. due to the time change. At breakfast there were many different food options than the day before including waffles which had honey instead of syrup for a topping and red dragon fruit. Fan favorites included the red dragon fruit, passion fruit, pineapple, and the watermelon. The coffee was still very popular among the students as we had both milk and sweetened condensed milk to add to it. Once the buffet-style breakfast was concluded the students headed to the bus for a short drive to a local village which had our tours for the day.

Harvesting onions

Our first stop was at a flower farm. Here, our tour guide, Tony, showed us many kinds of plants, which were planted in small fields in Hanoi surrounded by large, beautiful Vietnamese style architecture. First we saw New Year Trees which are a large part of Vietnamese culture because they flower once a year during the new year, or what the Vietnamese people call “Tet.” Tet is a huge celebration in Vietnam that lasts for weeks; they all come together as families, worship their ancestors, pray for good luck, try to ward off bad luck, and more. These trees are only about two feet in height, but the quality is not measured by how tall they grow. Instead, it is measured by how beautiful the tree has grown (i.e. how straight, if it has grown around something, eye appeal, etc.). The flower farm was filled with many vegetables as well, including green onions, Vietnamese eggplants, cucumbers, lettuce, and much more. The farmers are able to get 10-12 harvests per year depending on the plant. The small New Year Trees are actually planted with vegetables to use the land to the highest of its ability, as well as keeping the soil good with different kinds of plants. Trees are much more work than vegetables, but they make more money and are of more benefit to these farmers. For example, the Bonsai trees can be worth anywhere from $40,000-$120,000 in U.S. money. While walking through the gardens and streets, the farmers were all very kind by waving at us and talking to us about what they were planting. The houses around the farms were extremely beautiful and large, which isn’t necessarily seen in the other parts of Hanoi which we visited.

Duck farm

After the flower farm, we had the opportunity to visit a duck farm. This farm was in our tour guide’s village, and his mom used to run the operation. However, after Tony graduated from university and moved into the city of Hanoi, his mom was unable to continue running the duck farm. Now, Tony’s uncle runs the farm, and it was very interesting to see how the operation works. The ducks are hatched in the hatchery, and the farm gets the ducklings when they are 1-2 days old. From there the ducks are fed until 42 days, which is when they reach market weight and are harvested. Currently there are over ten thousand ducks being raised per year. The operation is located on a pond, and the ducks are separated by nets into different age groups. There are fish in the pond as well, and they are separated into three levels, top feeders, middle feeders, and bottom feeders. The fish are fed with fish feed at different densities, with the top being least dense, middle being medium density, and bottom being the most dense of the three. There were also hutches to shelter the ducks from the elements, and the section with the oldest ducks had water pouring over the roof from pipes. The water acts to cool down the ducks, with the evaporation causing a cooler atmosphere inside the hut. The level of water changes based on the weather. If it is hotter outside, more water is added to the pond to keep the ducks cool, and vice versa. The pond also has to be dry for a maximum of one month per year, and while it is being drained, limestone is put into the pond to neutralize the pH of the water when the pond is refilled.

Preparing chickens

After the tours we took a long walk around the local village to learn more about the culture in the area, which was a very unfiltered experience. The first thing we saw when we were walking was walking past a family butchering chickens on the street. When the family was done plucking the feathers and taking the insides out, they would lay the chicken on the ground on the side of the street. This was a great example of the different standards of sanitation between the United States and Vietnam. Next, we were able to see grapefruit and durian fruit trees in the backyards of the houses. From what we understood each house holds the whole extended family within it, so the houses ended up being very tall but not very wide. The streets were very narrow and had some pollution on the sides of them. We also noticed that most of the houses had one to three dogs on chains in front of the inside walkways to the houses. The group was able to peek in on a few of the houses which had businesses inside of them. We were able to experience an acupuncture business, ancestor statues, and a religious house. The students made sure to use the Vietnamese sayings that our tour guide taught us yesterday when greeting people in the villages. Overall, walking through the village gave the students a different outlook on the culture from the smells, sanitation, and food, we experienced it all today. 

After our walk around the village, we headed to Tony’s house for lunch. We had lots of new foods we tried including pig feet soup, jackfruit, sticky rice, pork rolls, and much more. Once again, we were served Coke, beer and water with the meal. Once we were done eating, we headed on the bus for a six hour drive to Sapa. On the drive we got to see lots of different types of Vietnamese buildings. Once we were a couple hours out of Hanoi we were able to see more countryside, mountains, and fruit production. Sapa is a mountainous agriculture area and is known as a popular tourist town in Vietnam. Hanoi has a population of around 10 million people whereas Sapa has a population of 38,000 thousand people, which makes it more ideal for a tourist town.

A new friend

Once we got to Sapa and drove 80 percent of the way up the mountain the coach bus could not take us any further due to the streets being too narrow. The students took two separate small vans up to the center of Sapa where the hotel was located. Right away we noticed that the streets seemed to be cleaner and there were lots of tourist shops. Then we got all settled into the hotel and walked to a restaurant for supper. This was a fan favorite meal among all of the students. To start we had salad with a fancy dressing which had a sweeter taste to it. For the next course we had spring rolls with a dipping sauce and steamed vegetables. For the main entrée we had duck and catfish with rice. Some of the students spent the night exploring the town and others went back to the hotel and went to bed to rest up for our long day tomorrow!

Tambiet! Allison Wright, Hadleight Hoos, Taylor Even