SATA Vietnam 2006 Blog

Today I woke up at 6:30, like I normally do, and headed out as far away from the city as I could get. My plan was to take one of the city buses to the end of the line and get myself as lost as possible. Fortunately I didn't get lost, but I did succeed in finding what I was looking for: rice paddies. After exiting the bus I looked around to see where I could walk to. I followed the train tracks that paralleled the highway until I came to a road where I could cross the dyke. I then walked around the rice paddies crossing between different fields on little dirt paths. There were a few people working in the fields, but they didn't seem to mind my walking through their crops. It was very peaceful outside of the city. For the first time I couldn't hear any of the traffic, voices, and other ambient noise that is everywhere in Hanoi.

To be exact, I was in the rice paddies that surrounded a small village in Ha Tay province. The name of this province was immediately recognizable to me because a good amount of the basket ladies that we interview are from this province. After walking around the rice paddies I ventured into the village to see what I could find. It was very small but still quite lively. There were only a handful of shops that I could find, but no where for me to get lunch.