Buffalo soldier

Well, rice farmer with a water buffalo, perhaps.

Our day started with a pot of green tea in the gardens of our homestay resort. There's no such thing as popping down to Tesco to get a box of teabags here - the leaves were pulled from the tree, washed and put in a pot of boiling water about 20 minutes before we got up. The tea was VERY strong, but the taste was softened somewhat by the honey and ginger.

Then it was morning exercises. Which, thankfully, were as tourist-friendly as you could imagine. A few gentle stretches, some confusion over right and left hands, and a bit of hopping on one leg and we were done.

Afterwards, it was breakfast: traditional pork noodle soup, which was delicious, a green pancake stuffed with banana and coconut cream, yoghurt and bread. We've basically done nothing but eat since we got here.

We needed the energy, though, as we then set off on a 12km bike ride to the historic village of Duong Lam and back. We're generally not ones for cycle rides, but today's was great (if a little hot). There's really no better way to see the countryside, and we went past fields of rice and peanuts with workers hacking away with hoes or hunkering down to tend to their crops.

The village itself could have come straight from the Middle Ages - if it hadn't been for the guys connecting up the fibre optic cables to the already-heaving telephone poles. Mme Tepeka decided that the middle of a bike ride through a village in Vietnam was the perfect time to get a haircut. So we all stopped, marched into a local barber's shop, and watched while our guide explained to the bemused owner what it was she wanted done.

When we finally arrived back at the homestay, there was just time for a quick shower before our cookery class. Bedecked in very fetching aprons, we learned how to prepare pork spring rolls, plus how to make the fancy little rose and bee garnishes that accompany the dish. And then we ate them. Fantastic.

To round things off at the homestay, we were treated to a hand massage. It's probably best we left when we did - we'd have been completely exhausted if we'd stayed any longer.

Now we're back in Hanoi for one more night and are off shortly to brave the traffic and track down dinner. We've nothing planned for tomorrow. I suspect a long lie-in may be on the agenda for some...