Taking the Traditional Bamboo Basket Boat (aka Coconut Boat) - Part of Hoi An Village Experience Cycling Day Tour

I thought it's all about lanterns for my trip to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hoi An but as I researched deeper about the ancient town, an interesting activity popped out; taking the coconut boat!

 So here we were; about to arrive at the "jetty" for the most iconic activity of the Hoi An Village Experience Cycling Day Tour! 

Smiling and taking a quick photograph with the uniquely-weaved, vividly-painted basket boats that could have been just large plastic tubs from afar. 

After almost two hours of cycling, I guess we deserved to take a breather first; hot tea and what I thought were plates of fruits. Turned out they were coconut candy which I didn't like as they were chewy and not as crispy as they looked. 

After a good 15-minute rest, it's time to board! We were asked beforehand, if we would want to get wet. A pity none of us would want to; hence eliminating any hopes of me being able to get videos / photos of dizzy and / or wet travellers. 

Given the need to balance, it can be quite unnerving stepping onto the bamboo boat. I prefer to use bamboo instead of coconut as the material it was made from is bamboo. And the only similarity I can find with coconuts could be that they resemble coconut bobbing on water.

Anyway, some basic info about the bamboo boats - they were not merely for tourists and have a functional use. Aside from being cheaper and faster to produce, its round shape contributes to stability and even on low tide, you can still easily move them by rolling them! 

One bamboo boat can typically sit about five persons and do you know that bamboo boats are also commonly put on normal boats as they could be used as rescue boats?! 

Let's cross the concrete bridge first! 

Those who are too tall should be mindful and bend down! No issue for shorties like me; it's still a few inches away before my topmost strands of hair could even touch the base of the bridge.

Coconut forest ahead of us! Again, coming from a Southeast Asian country, I don't think the trees on the riverbanks were coconuts; they appeared to be the much shorter palm trees typically found in swamps. 

Alex and our tour mate giving it a go as the rower of our respective bamboo boat! I am unsure why Alex chose to stand up as common science should have taught him that standing up increases the centre of gravity, and correspondingly destabilizes the boat! 

I was just busy taking selfies. 

After just a short row, we were left puzzled when the boat operators rowed toward the riverbanks and either stopped there or in between the palm trees. 

Turned out we were supposed to fish! Even though I did read through the tour brochure, I had assumed I was supposed to "see" how they catch! But this was a notch better as we could actually experience it ourselves! 

Throwing a fishing line attached to a bait into the shallow water, the key to success was to bring the bait closer to the rocks where our preys laid hidden.

That's one interested party!

One hit! As you can see, the meaty bait didn't have any hook and since it was such a small crab; it's better for us to let it go back to nature. 

I almost wanted to keep it as a pet. 

Now "seeing" the locals using the traditional fishing nets to catch fishes, not the play play activity we had earlier with the crabs. You can check out the video here for the dispersal of the fishing net!

Time to go back! 

Entire experience was just about 30 minutes which I thought was sufficient as the weather was so hot and it was getting a tad boring going down a waterway that didn't seem to change much. p.s. fishing is so not for me. 

YouTube video here for your viewing pleasure!

=====

Additional Information

Part of the Hoi An Village Experience Cycling Day Tour

Click here for my 8 Days' Itinerary to Danang (The City of Bridges) & Hoi An (The City of Lanterns) in Vietnam