Vietnam and Cambodia 2017: Feb 26

We had a nice long talk over breakfast with Hue, the lady that takes care of our homestay. She is trying to learn English by talking to tourists and is doing quite well. She is 27, newly married and 3 months pregnant. Her attitude towards life is great even though they are struggling....I guess that is the Buddhist faith. There are 10 people from her family living in one place. They have to use sandbags to keep their structure from blowing away in the storms. She and her sister are paying the family expenses. Although she would really like to go to school to learn more English, the cost is $50 a month and she and her husband combined only bring in $200 a month. With better English she could work in a hotel and then she would have some benefits in case her baby got sick. If we had more money would pay for her schooling. But we will give her a large tip and hope that it helps in some way.

Even though it was really windy and chilly we decided we'd go for a bike ride. We first rode to Cai Da beach which was a long stretch of beach at the point. It turned out that there was so much erosion from the winds and surf that there was little beach left. The large hotels on this stretch are now going out of business.

Then we went to ride through the rice fields. It was amazing but tough going in some stretches with the wind 😬

Our butts and legs were sore when we got back. After a rest we walked down to the restaurant on the beach owned by the lady who owns our homestay. It was blustery !!! The beach is usually filled with tourists

In the evening we went into Hoi An. We walked there and took a cab back. The town totally comes alive at night and is unrecognizable from the day time, when we were there before. It was very crowded, but picturesque. I was totally mesmerized by the thousands of silk lanterns. I really wish we could have brought one home.