One day after Mrs Moe, Oscar, Sophie, and Mr Cox joined us in Hoi An, we did an amazing motorcycle tour! We did our tour with XO Tours, an all-woman company, and a recommendation from some good friends back home who visited Vietnam last year and said it was a highlight of their visit! Son, the leader of our ten tour guides, said that women are “usually more patient and usually safer” which was a good description of what my mom was looking for in motorbike tour guides! They were all so nice.
We stopped at five places and each stop was really fun. We stopped at a house where we got to see a woman make reed mats (she was 47 years old and had been making them since she was 10 years old!), a pig market where we saw and held tiny piglets, a house where they made rice paper, a pottery shop where we got to make pottery, and a yummy lunch. It was all really fun!
I thought the tour was great! Our guides were really safe and I would love to do it again!
Visiting the family who makes the reed mats… We learned that it takes the woman 4 hours to make each reed mat and each one sells for 70-100K VND which equals roughly $3-4.50…. We also learned that XO Tours gives the places where we stopped about two days worth of wages for allowing their groups to come visit!
Next stop: piglets!
Making rice paper:
Making pottery with the friendly and photogenic potter:
What a day! It’s neat you got to visit several professionals at their workplaces. You’re so privileged to get to learn from people who are such artisans! (and also the piglets are adorable)
It was so neat! We loved getting to hold those tiny piglets!
Yeah! What an adventure! Glad the tour company worked out : )
Yeah! It was so fun!
We’re very grateful for the recommendation! I have to admit I was a little hesitant to do it because I’m not a fan of motorbikes, but it was so amazing I would highly recommend it to others and happily would do it again.
The motorcycle looks like so much fun in addition to getting to make rice paper, work on the loom, and hold piglets! I love that you’re getting to learn how to make some of the foods in different places you visit.
Thanks Mrs Baker! We are hoping to make some of these foods at home!
I’ve done a few tours with XO in Saigon, but not in Hoi An (I have been to Hoi An a few times too, and love it), but that was before XO started operating there. Incredible organisation! Some of the “retired” tour leaders and drivers have become, and remained personal friends. Happy to hear you enjoyed it. ✌️