rice paper making in the Mekong

Our first stop for the day was at a place where they make rice paper. I guess I've never really thought about it before... I knew that rice paper was made from rice... but didn't think that the rice pieces could be ground into something liquid...

Soaked raw rice is ground and mixed with water...

Then the liquid mix is poured over a cloth that covers the top of a big boiling bowl of water...

...Then taken off, and laid on a long woven strip for drying (behind the woman in the photo below and shown up close in the last two photos in)...

I believe these are called banh uot in Vietnamese.