Tuesday in Vietnam

Today we really saw Vietnam.

We left at 6:30 a.m. from the hotel -- loading into five four-wheel drive vehicles. The trip took about three hours. We saw water buffalo just walking along the road, tons of motorbikes as usual, people riding regular bikes, etc. The scenary was amazing as we finally saw some of the beautiful mountains. It was foggy and a bit overcast, but that hardly mattered. The final road into the project was a muddy road that definitely required a four-wheel drive. We bumped along the road in the mountains with no railing. And the roads were not wide. We visited a primary school and the sponsors met their children. There were water buffalo just strolling by us. We then walked about 2km into the community to see some homes. It was a tough walk as it was winding, muddy and crossed some water (we had to jump rock to rock). But it was such an amazing view along the way. There were rice paddies everywhere and you could see the people out in the fields working with the traditional Vietnamese hat. It was the first time I really thought, "This is Vietnam." It was truly what I had imagined Vietnam to look like. Stunning. There was a light cloud just sitting over the mountains. It was so pretty!

We got to look into some of the homes and talk to the people that lived there. One man invited the group, which was probably about 25 including our staff here and translators, into his home for tea. We had to respectfully decline.

We then went to lunch at the nearby town. It was in a replica of a traditional house on stilts. We had to take our shoes off to go inside. We actually saw on straw mats on the floor to eat. It was family style food. I'm not even sure what it all was. We did have rice, two types of meat, vegetables, soup and something that I would swear was crinkle-cut french fries, even tasted like it! We also drank rice wine....which you chug, not sip. I did try the maize (corn) wine. Way to strong. We had several glasses (the size of a shot glass) of the rice wine. As we were walking out, they were preparing a cat to cook. No joke. I don't think we ate any....at least that's what our national staff here told us. I'm trying not to think about that one!

After that we went into another project, which was much easier to get to. They performed many different dances, etc. for us. The children were beautiful. We visited the preschool and nearly finished medical clinic. I also "interviewed" some of the kids for some things we want to do with our website.

We then once again piled into the four-wheel drive vehicles. This time I was one of two people in the jump seat in the back. The drive was crazy as it was now rush hour. Traffic is just insane! Our driver came very close to having a run in with a motor bike. It was close enough that the driver stopped in the middle of the road to regroup himself. Just a bit frightening. At one time he had to come to a quick stop and started laying on the horn -- trying to move the water buffalo in the road. Speaking of horns, it's non-stop here. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the driving, but there actually is and the horns play a big part of it....especially for passing motorbikes, etc. Some of the times we were passing something and there was another vehicle coming quickly. Seemed to be several close calls. Traffic is just insanity here. I can hardly describe it. The amount of motorbikes and regular bikes on the road far out-number the cars, etc. It's not even close. We did arrive just as it was getting dark. Our company policy is not to have staff, sponsors, etc. traveling at night.

Dinner was at the hotel and not really one of the favorites. We had a soup, the spring rolls and noodles and then lamb, pork and shrimp. Not sure why there are always several different meats! Cheesecake was dessert. But it was much lighter than the cheesecake we are so accustomed to eating.

We actually check out tomorrow morning and head to Halong Bay. It's a World Heritage site and is supposed to be amazing. We will go on a cruise there. We then stay at a different hotel before returning to Hanoi on Wednesday before flying out for Danang on Thursday.

take care.