Oh ya know, just another day in Vietnam

Yesterday, in the outskirts of Hanoi, we biked around little villages and learned about rice. It was so incredible! Jesse & I realized we are stupid Americans when we discovered we had no idea how rice was grown. You've see pictures of "rice paddy" fields soaking in water but where is the rice? Is it under the water? Does it grow in a circle like a "rice cake" you get at Publix? FYI: it grows like wheat, rice seeds lay in a line, dry. Pho, our amazing guide went out in the rice field to pick some for us. He understands our curiosity :). So a learning experience - yes!

We went back to our host's house for lunch (see the pictures in the Hanoi album). He and his family were amazingly generous. They cooked so much food and shared many bottles of rice wine and beer with us. The father of the house could say "thank you very much" and "bottoms up" in english. It was pretty funny. The husband and wife sang for us, they invited friends over to sing for us, their grandchildren sang too. They have been married for 40+ years and were very much in love. So sweet.

Driving around here is an experience... even scarier is walking around. SO many scooters. Hardly any traffic laws (at least that we've noticed - but if there are rules no one is following them). Cars and scooters will get so close to you to pass by. They ride up on the sidewalks even. It is consistently amazing to see entire families on scooters. We saw 5 people on 1 scooter!! Three kids (2 small children & a baby!) and their parents. We were not camera quick so no picture, but I'm sure we will see it again.

Tomorrow morning (it's 4pm here) we pack up and head out to stay on a junk boat. I hope our luggage doesn't sink the ship. I just read over our itinerary and it looks wonderful, although it does seem there is a lot of seafood in our future... oh well, you only live once.

Mark Twain says it best

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do

than by ones you did.

So throw off the bow lines.
Sail away from the harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore, Dream, Discover"

Until next time...

xoxo,

Katie