After breakfast we met our guide in the front lobby and jumped in the van. We drove for about an hour to a very small village. We were greeted by Madam Tway and her husband at their house in the village. They actually had two homes with a courtyard in the middle. By village standards they were very well off,,,, in the US you would probably consider them poor. They were so sweet and kind, they offered us tea and a bathroom to use. The bathroom was amazingly clean. After that we jumped on bikes they had for us to use and we biked around for a few hours.
Along the bike ride our guide, Pho, explained how the villagers live. It was very interesting to see a lot of them right outside of their home selling meat and other items to anyone walking by. Everyone was very nice, we were greeted with a lot of smiles. In the neighboring town a man, Mr. Wang I believe, was sitting out side his home while we were biking by. He was the wealthy man in his town and he was dressed very nice. He insisted that we come in for tea so we did. We spoke through a translator; he answered questions for us about his way life and we answered questions for him about America.
At the end of the bike ride we came to a temple where we stopped to pray. Our guide showed us how the locals pray and how the temple operates, it was very interesting. They offered us tea but it didn't look the cleanest. In fact, it looked very dirty. We politely accepted the tea and pretended to drink it. After the temple experience the van picked us up and took us back to Madam Tway's house. There they had lunch prepared for us and welcomed us to the table with a song.
Lunch,,,,, what an experience! These folks love to sing and they love to cheers. And, they love to cheers and sing,,,,,, and drink. We were given shots of rice wine, and each time you took a drink it was topped off for you. We were also given some really good beer,,,, same deal,,, you drink, you get topped off. We were there for about 2 hours, speaking through the translator, eating their food and drinking. My favorite question was "Were you worried about coming here considering the American War." It was very interesting to hear their other questions, they really have little knowledge about America.
They have a saying, Enter the Wine, Mouth Opens and Words Come Out. For Katie and I along with them,,,, we confirmed,,, this is true. They kept singing songs about love and beauty and such,,, we explained we can't sign at all. They thought this was impossible and asked us to sing "You are my sunshine my only sunshine" --- we laughed so hard but in the end we had to let them down. Anyone who has ever heard Katie or I sing knows this was the right thing to do ;-). Regardless, they are our new friends,,,, always welcome in our house as our we in theirs. When it was time to go they stuffed our pockets with peanuts (hilarious) and we headed home.
Back at the hotel we thought it would be a good idea to lay down for a second. 3 hours later we woke up to the hotel calling asking if we're going to have dinner. We made reservations for 8:30 and headed down to the French restaurant in the hotel. The food was fantastic and even the chef came out to speak with us (something we didn't see him do to anyone else). The people here really love Americans.
After dinner headed to another restaurant in the hotel that turns in to a bit of a night club after hours. We hung at the bar and quickly met a couple from Australia. They were just engaged and on a trip with his parents. They were a great couple and after a few hours of good wine and better tequila we again proved the saying above is true.
That was it for Friday,,,, check out the album below. I even added a photo of the route we took, great stuff!
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