Going off the title of this blog entry, it won't be so hard to guess that it's infact been a day for many firsts! ...My first time having Cao lau, or to you and me: pork noodles with veg (very yummy) for breakfast. - Nothing like your average cereal or toast, I actually preferred that over cereal or toast anyway. My second first (confusing) was the rice and veg fields. - Not that I haven't seen farming crops before but I got to trudge bare foot through lotus swamps and cow s***, learning about some Vietnamese farming culture. Before you squirm and think about the cow s*** too much, It was honeslty really therapeutic, in an odd way. It genuinely felt quite nice- que for the big cliche... "I felt at one with nature" as they say ha! My third and most favorite, was my first time riding a water buffalo.

35 year old male, Emlo walked each willing person in the group through a swamped lake, giving us, one by one, generous dips in there too. Nothing glam about it, the afternoon was pretty much spent pedalling in the heat and being in s***ty water - amazingly fun though! Emlo's owner, an old Vietnamese man, was on board while the buffalo took us on our tour. I can't remember his name but I vividly remember him spicing up the experience with a soft serenade of Bob Marley's Buffalo Soldier whilst we were riding around- Brilliant! ...only his version was sang something along the lines of: "Buffalo soldo" haha. I obviously sang along, it would be rude to all three men: Bob, Emlo and the Owner for me not to! In return for the welcomed burst of tune, I attempted to teach the man the next bit of the chorus: "dreadlock rasta" but he couldn't grasp it. I don't even think he knew what I was saying when I exclaimed: "You like Bob Marley, me too!"...

The rice fields were amazing- there's some good pictures of me watering the crops for the locals. There's also an amazing picture (this blog photo) of a local country man, very old, tired-looking and weary, who was slowly walking along the dirt path infront of me. He was so humble and happy to me and reptitively shouted "hello" at my camera. It was a moment that made me smile inside. What an incredible, friendly man.

Tonight for dinner, (and yet another first time experience) we're off for homemade street food: springrolls, all you can eat, or make! I'm looking forward to it and I'm currently charging my phone so I can take some snaps of the meal, and of the lanterns too- I seen they light up at night on google, it looks amazing.