8:30 AM : Begin your day with a convenient pickup from your hotel in Hoi An and head to the rice farming village of Cam Thanh. On the way, ride through picturesque countryside roads with rice fields, nipa palm forests, and shrimp or fish farms. Get up close and personal with the daily life of the locals.
9:30 AM : Upon arrival, be welcomed with tea and wet tissues. Learn about the whole process of wet rice cultivation and ask any questions you may have about farming life. Then, put on farming clothes and a hat before getting into the muddy rice field to work as a real farmer with friendly water buffalo. Enjoy a buffalo ride on the field for a photo.
Watch as a local farmer demonstrates the whole process of wet rice growing with a buffalo. Water the field the traditional way to make the soil soft, plough the soil to make it soft and porous, and rake the soil to make it flat and smooth. Then, transplant rice by hand and learn harvesting techniques.
Now, it is time for you to have a go with the farmer’s help. These activities will help you have a real touch to rice farming daily life. Head back to the house, take a rest, and enjoy a glass of passion juice. Then, learn how to make white rice by traditional methods with some old hand machines.
10:30 AM: Husk the rice to have brown rice, winnow to separate brown rice from husk, sift and pound brown rice to become white rice, grind white rice to get rice flour, and cook rice pancakes from rice flour. Join a short rice pancake cooking class with the farmer’s wife.
11:30 AM Finally, enjoy lunch with some specialities of the village, including tam huu (three friends), deep-fried spring rolls (vegetarian style), local rice pancakes served with fresh organic vegetables and homemade fish sauce, steamed rice, fish (or chicken meat), shrimp, pork, and seasonal fruits.