Cycling in Mekong

We spent 3 days cycling along side the creeks & inlets of the Mekong delta, on a tour arranged by Innoviet. It was a wonderful trip. Most of the tracks are concrete, although we did go along some muddy & potholed paths which were a bit uncomfortable. We were passing people's houses, and they were often quite intrigued by these strange Westerners who choose to holiday on a bike rather than on a beach. The way of life was a gentle but hard-working pace - farming at a subsistence level. We saw incredible diversity of crops; rice in one area, peanuts, dragon fruit, pineapples, coconuts elsewhere. Rice is the staple for many. We saw it at all stages, first green shoots, golden ready for harvest, threshing the hand-cut plants, drying out on the road, and then at a processing factory. As well as boiled rice, it's processed to make rice papers for spring rolls, and of course rice wine. The husks are either burnt as a fertiliser, or go as pig feed. After the rice has been harvested, ducks were put into the field to feed up on the spilt grains. Nothing is wasted, and I shall think back to the fields of the Mekong next time I have some sticky rice.