I went on a VIP tour of the Amish in Pennsylvania – tourists acted like it was a safari

It's the long clothes lines drying in the wind that alert you to the fact that you are entering Amish country. "Every day is laundry day for the Amish women," says Jim, our driver and guide. "Every day except Sunday."

While staying with friends in Pennsylvania last month, I wanted to visit the super-fertile farmland of Lancaster County, about an hour west of Philadelphia. It is the place where this breakaway religious sect first settled after fleeing persecution in 18 ^e century Europe, and still contains America's largest group of 367,000 Amish.

Their belief in simple living, simple clothing and ...