Ducks and Rice Paddies, wandering the countryside

A few weeks ago we were invited on a little jaunt out in the countryside to with some friends.  We headed about 80kms south of Phnom Penh to Takao to have lunch with some more friends.  Just at the end of their lane are rice paddies as far as the eye can see.  It's beautiful.

Despite living here for almost three years, I had actually never seen rice on the plants before.

Not until we got right up close did we notice an unfamiliar sound emanating from the rice fields.  We got up close and found the source...

Ducklings!  And not just a few of them... our friends started calling them (for those of you who don't know how to call a duckling, you call out "keke keke keke").  And out they came...

Hundreds and hundreds of them, in fact there were about 500 of them.  They had a bit of a feed and a bit of a rest before their owner came to take them home.  I didn't realise you can herd ducks.  But apparently, this is how it's done:

It's not as easy as it looks.  Against the advice of an old woman looking on, the ducks' master decided to take them home a different way.  "They don't know the way, it'll take too long, they don't know which way to go" the woman warned.  However, the duck herder continued on his way.  The old woman got up,  uttering her final words of warning: "Fine, well I'll see you in nine days then", and started down the lane.  A few moments later the ducks had disappeared into all directions into the rice paddies, leaving their master looking wistfully at his dispersed flock, as the old woman headed home. 

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