We spent days 88 through 102 in a small fishing village (population approximately 1500) on the coast of Vietnam — about thirty steps from the front door landed our toes in the surf. When planning the trip, we thought a couple of scheduled breaks along the way would be a good idea. This break allowed us to watch the waves every day while observing life round us. This village is small and very poor. Children played outside most of the day — meaning their families could not pay for the local school. We had the choice of 2 restaurants or buying a meal from a neighbor to be delivered at 5:30 pm. We did try cooking one night, but decided that (besides eggs for breakfast) cooking was not really worth the effort. Cooking meant going to the market for meat and veggies every morning before seven and cleaning up afterwards. Who wants to do this when meal delivery costs a mere 300000 dong for the entire family? We walked to one of the two restaurants for lunch each day and found various shops and markets to buy eggs (be careful not to buy the ones with baby chicks instead of unfertilized yolks), bread, and fruit for breakfast.
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- The view from our front window. 75 percent of the households earn their living fishing.
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- The window over the kitchen sink gives a more realistic view of a home in this village.
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- Everyday, these two came for a wagonload of sand.
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- The Twin Towers in Quoy Nhon. We do not know anything about these since all the signs were in Vietnamese.
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- I am getting shorter every day!
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- Looks like we have gone back to France. The French occupied Vietnam for many years. Many Christian Churches dot the landscape. Many Vietnamese are Catholic, but do not affiliate themselves with the Catholic Church of Rome. The Vietnam government has set up its own Catholic Church.
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- This hill was on the church property. We were asked if we wanted to go inside. I was a little nervous at first walking through the padlocked door, but what we found inside was delightful.
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- A wonderfully unique little chapel inside the hill. Murals were carved into the cave walls between the stalactites.
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- We bought bread from a roadside stand most every day. On this particular day the stand was closed. Later the owner flagged us down in the middle of the highway to make her sale.
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- Ganh Da Dia. The geometric shapes in these rocks are unique and unexplained.
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- Little boy fishing.
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- Tiny shrimp spread out to dry. On the day we left Gahn Do, our taxi could not get to our condo because the streets were covered in these black cloths with tiny drying shrimp.
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- Futbal (soccer) on the beach in Gahn Do, Vietnam.
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- Running along the beach. Caleb has not been able to keep up his long-distance running on this trip as much as he would like. Here he is getting in a short run.
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- Happiness is….
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- Notice we are in the shade! We had a relaxing 2 weeks here. Now off to more adventures.
-KLaff