Photos: Sarah and I sporting our motorbike gear. The rental I was on ran out of gas (plus the front brake didn't work) and we had to coast down a hill to find a gas station.
A few friends and I took the night train to Lai Cau on our way to Sapa. Our friend, Hoa (guy with cap in photo), took us to visit his home village of Phu Thuy where he tries to visit as much as he can when he isn't working. We decided to buy candy and milk (although the candy was a bigger hit) and ended up having a huge little get-together at Hoa's family home where all the kids were told to tell the other kids to come for treats. I don't know where else you can go and just by word of mouth get all the kids of a village to come eat and play at a moment's notice.
The kids were pretty shy when they first saw us, for most it was the first time they ever seen foreigners - Steve and Trevor were almost a foot taller than the adults and Sarah has long blond hair. Hoa's family cooked us lunch and we went for a walk around the village and visited the local school to disperse more of the candy. We played with the kids and I even learned (tried to anyway) play marbles.
We took lots of photos and everywhere you turn you just want to take another photo of that child or that field. I can't imagine not having a digital camera, but another reason why it's good fto have is that we can show the kids their picture. The kids get so excited when they see their faces on the screen.
For us it was such a contrast to Hanoi, where there is a constant buzz that I almost forget what silence sounds like. It was so calm in the country and the people were very kind and gentle, that it makes me worry what will happen in the future when Vietnam's economy starts taking off and opens up to the rest of the world ... where will it leave these people?
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