Dale Poter, 58, took off his sneakers and walked bare foot on the road in Tra Que village in the ancient town of Hoi An, in the central province of Quang Nam, to go to the field to planting vegetable.

Poter is an American who joined a group of foreign visitors to Tra Que village to study working as a farmer.

Through an interpreter, Poter carefully observed the instructions of Mr. Ba, a farmer of Tra Que village, on how to hold farm tools, how to hoe land to make beds in straight lines, how to use two bamboo-made shoulder poles to carry two iron baskets of seaweed to the field as fertilizer before growing vegetable.

Poter had trouble with the shoulder poles. He dropped the poles several times causing the others to laugh.

After placing the seaweed on the beds, Poter used farm tools to level the soil and used his fingers to make holes to plant baby mustard greens. He then used shoulder poles to carry water in two iron baskets from a nearby lake to water the newly planted vegetables.

“It is very interesting to be close to Vietnamese farmers to see the way they work and observe the peaceful and simple life of rural Vietnamese,” Poter said.

“You have a very charming country. I envy you!”

Susan, 64, took note of Mr. Ba’s instruction and the name of famous fennels in Tra Que. “I wish to have time to stay here to learn how to garden like the local farmers. They are so friendly and hospitable. I love trees, I love the nature and I love this land!” she said.

The tour to Tra Que village to learn gardening has attracted thousands of foreign visitors to Hoi An.

Visitors come from many countries like Australia, France, Spain, Germany, the US, etc, to Hoi An to both enjoy the landscape and experience the relaxing feeling of riding a bicycle to the over 400-year-old Tra Que village to visit the field, to breathe fresh air and to become farmers.

This tour was initiated by a Hoi An man named Nguyen Van Khoa in 2005. Since 2007, many travel firms have offered this service. The fee for a tour is from $22 to $50, depending on visitors’ choice to plant vegetable, harvest rice or plough.

Nguyen Van Ba, a farmer from Tra Que village, said he is familiar with teaching foreign visitors to work as farmers. After working on the field, visitors are invited to taste rural cuisines.

After playing the role of a farmer in Hoi An, Finnish President Tarja Halonen wrote on the autograph book of a travel film as follows: “Thank you very much for giving me a meaningful and interesting holiday. I was a fisherman, enjoyed the rural and simple life with humble and optimistic fishermen and I especially enjoyed unique Vietnamese cultural characteristics”.

Foreign visitors work as farmers at Tra Que village:

TA