A TRIP TO THE COUNTRYSIDE

         Having got off a coach, I decided to sit on the pavement for a while before walking home. It was about 4:30 a.m. There was not much traffic on village roads. I felt sort of safer in black clothes though I was alone. Perhaps the tranquility and fresh air here comforted me a lot. I took a careful and quick look around and was surprised that the whole small town looked no difference in its shape except for changes in residents' houses, a bit more modern, but diverse in size and architecture design. The darkness didn't want any sunlight to change its place, so pale brightness from streetlights were not strong enough for local people to travel on streets. Bikers sometimes broke the quietness with juicy gossips and lights attached on their bikes were always on.

"Set yourself free. Walk and enjoy what is called the purest and most peaceful ever."

        Totally covered with a thick layer of gray tar, the road pushed my feet forward in a high speed. The sky was spotted with faint stars and they were disappearing. There seemed to be no certain border of colors even though it leads our view to the horizon line. A typical landscape in the central south plain surrounded by ranges of mountains extending endlessly, blanked with brown and fair color of straw roots as another harvest has already finished. The sun began to come up in hope that it would be a shining day. Harvested rice were ready to be spread out on all concrete and asphalt roads. Concrete roads are considered to be much more adsorbent and better in drying rice by using the heat of the sun. Sunshine in the past became a crucial part of traditional rice storage which was cheap and convenient for local farmers to lower their productivity costs.

A concrete road in a town in Binh Dinh Province

            All could be seen were rice paddies with straw roots, wild grass and water. In a bird's eye view, they looked like a large carpet, weaved from strips in different shades of green and yellow. Sometimes a herd of water buffaloes grazing new fresh straw at dusk colored the carpet with some black as a sign of living things. 

Harvested rice fields by dawn

            Children here never let field be lonely. As soon as a nearby paddy has done its main job, it will be used for another recreational purpose- a playground where children play a lot of folk games in. Nowadays, football becomes more popular than others. Rice harvest season is known as the busiest but also most enjoyable. The elder didn't want to stay in and were eager to head out in the fields so that they could pick up grains dropped or stuck in rice stalks. Many a little makes a mickle. My grandma could collect a big sack of rice by herself.

            Twenty minutes flew by. I was at home then. I took my first steps through the gate and was in surprise that the house was surrounded by brick wall hedges or metal fences. My house was not a case. Our neighbors did the same thing which could be a trend at that moment. Brick wall hedges and metal fences are probably working well in solving problems of estate disputes, but also beautify the village. Those days, rice weren't still dried, so most of roads were busy and crowded. My mom had enough time for pick-up-me breakfast and she bought a wrap of  hot sticky rice. The ingredients and the flavor were exactly like those in the past but a plastic bag. Banana leaves used to be our first and only choice many years ago, but now it's another story.

            Being tired after a long day on a coach, I lay down on bed and took a nap then. As a dusk fell, we began to collect and put all sun - dried rice into plastic sacks before delivering them home for storage. This stage is as hard as others. Normally, each household gets a large amount of rice to be dried on roads, spreading for a long road. As a result, it takes us at least two hours to finish and it also depends on number of labor. These days, flying kites are still one of rural children's favorite hobbies, but kites have been evolved into a variety of sizes, shapes and materials. Most importantly, children themselves no longer try to learn how to make a kite from recycled materials. Over the past ten years, my friendly neighbors and I often came together to the fields and watched others fly their old paper kites and ride buffalos in the fields. We did a great job to make big kites, but never succeeded in rising them up to the sky despite doing our best many times. Anyway, it's put into a little corner of my mind as something funny to retell about. 

The sky at dusk

          When the darkness came, the moon went up high as an only huge flashlight hung in the sky. Today was a clear day, so we decided to sit down on the front yard and played a counting game. It was no doubt that children here were quite good at counting stars. The dark didn't stop us from trying another game: hide-and-seek. It was fun, but dangerous too because sort of things like snakes can drive someone into danger.

           A few days before I moved back to Ho Chi Minh City for work, I heard from my neighbors that local authorities are planning to convert a half of the field into residential area. The countryside will be urbanized soon, resulting in what we might  guess - the vanishing of customs, habits, rituals and beliefs related to wet rice cultivation.

FIRST RIDING LESSONS

        

        

What was it like to ride a motorbike for the first time ? 

  - Terrible, embarrassed and worthy are three adjectives that can describe my feelings.-

 Unlike my peers, I did hesitate about learning how to control a motorcycle. Not until I was a junior university students, did I make up mind. In my respective, street bikes are more likely to get into an accident, but the matter of fact is that in Vietnam, if you are on a low budget, they are considered as the best vehicles which can take you to every corner of such a bustle and hustle city. My first teachers were members of my family. They tried to show me some simplest ways to memorize some major parts of a Yamaha Serius and necessary steps to control it.

"Oh, Gosh! My world is shaking and I am about to fall down." said me. 

In fact, I didn't hold my handlebars tight and direct them on the right track.

" Remember that someone is sitting right behind you and your concentration mustn't be lack. However safe they are depends on you." said my father. 

 At once, conflicting thoughts popped into my mind: should I give up or carry on?

Whether or not, I had to handle stress and fears when I got on it. My first practice was still under control of my father. In general, it happened in a safe way. 

           I did another try after my third summer vacation ended, which means I returned to Ho Chi Minh city. Those days, I made a big decision to move to a new dorm. To save up my money for other more important purposes, I borrowed a motorbike from my roommate and managed to carry all my personal belongings to the dorm. To be honest, it became completely a disaster because I didn't get used to it yet. Some main components were placed differently and I needed some time to remember all of them.

After a short while, I decided to start the engine and ride it. Normally, moving on flat roads seemed to be a lot easier. Eventually, I reached the dorm and figured out that I had never ridden a bike over any step😕. All of a sudden, a younger boy showed up and he gave me a new idea of managing this situation. Why didn’t I do the same way he has already finished ?  I ended up holding the handlebars while the engine was still on and tried to take my underbone with me. I slipped my mind that I didn’t get any experience of doing that before. It came to a deeply embarrassing moment that I was unconsciously dragged by the bike. My hands were holding handlebars and I was running along with it at the same time. “ What’s on earth going on? Stop!” I freaked out and dropped my handlebars in time. I fell down right afterwards. “ Thanks my goodness.”  My so - called horse didn’t fell on me and just some scratches above my knees and elbows. I was given a big laugh from lookers-on. How hilarious! Nowhere I could hide myself at that moment. 😄

             Anyway, I learned a lot from the failure. An worrying issue was that a mirror was broken and wave alpha was not mine. I came back to my rented room and apologized for my crazy mistake. She did say nothing and took me to a small motor care shop for replacing a new one, but no mirror could fit. Then, she told me that learning from falling was learning to ride. She used to fall down on the ground for the first rides. That was reason why she let me go alone with my stuff.

Street bikes such as underbones and scooters are popular in Vietnam.

         My third lesson of riding a bike was when I went on a trip with my elder sister in a highland city. This time, my confidence and courage was built up, so I asked her for controlling her Yamaha Serius and she sat right behind to instruct me in urgent cases. The roads in the mountains are absolutely different from those in cities. The roads snake their ways through mountains and are uneven, which requires riders a great deal of concentration of adjusting their gears and gas as well as controlling handlebars and brakes. I undoubtedly failed to achieve these goals. In a great attempt to reach an uphill slope, we were almost unable to go up and ran down instead. "Shift your motorbike to first gear and you can go up to the top." We followed that instruction from a passerby and we did it! " We nearly died because of you! How terrible!" said my sister.😓 Since then, my family hasn't allowed me to ride a motorbike on hill roads.