A bike ride and BBQ

Yesterday when we arrived we were greeted outside the hotel by 2 ladies standing in front of their respective establishments which both offered almost identical services bike and motor bike hire, laundry and more. We offloaded all our dirty clothes on one of them, Miss Hong, and were promised them back this morning. They were duly ready on time and for 70,000 dong (2.50€) we now have a fresh and clean wardrobe, ironed even.
This morning's optional activity was a bike ride. The description hadn't sounded that promising but it easily exceeded my expectations. Most of the route was on small paths and roads which enabled us to avoid any real issues with traffic and also gave us a fascinating glimpse of Vietnamese life that is not visible in town or from a minibus on a main road. So we saw water buffalo grazing, market gardens with acres of salads, herbs and vegetables, shrimp farming, we 'helped' with the watering and were greeted by friendly waves and 'hellos', we even got a very authentic sounding 'G'day, mate.' from one old guy.
This brought us to China Beach formerly the old US forces R&R area, now a quite upmarket beach with loungers under thatched shades, jet skis for hire and parascending on offer. A leisurely hour here sipping beer in the shade before another short bike ride brought us to our boat. The bikes were loaded aboard, we took our seats and we chugged off to an island in the river for our BBQ lunch. Our boat's skipper became our chef and he cooked us beef, shrimps, pork and chicken for our lunch followed by fresh pineapple. Meal over, everything's loaded back it he boat and we chug back up river to Hoi An. A great morning.