Duncan here. We’re on our last day in the central Vietnam fishing village of Hoi An. The past 4 days have been a peaceful change of pace from the much larger cities of Hanoi and Hue. Tomorrow we take an overnight train to Ho Chi Minh City, and a flight to Phu Quoc island near Cambodia.
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| An altar with offerings in front of a store for good luck |
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| A fisherman paddling past a rice field outside Hoi An |
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| A cool lunch spot with Canadian friends |
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| The fishing town of Hoi An in central Vietnam |
Here are a few recent observations from Vietnam: We generally spend $1/day to rent a bike, $3-4 for a full meal with drinks and dessert, $12/person for nice quality lodging with breakfast; Even in cities it’s common to see women or men in conical hats lugging two baskets of fruit or other goods balanced across their shoulders with a bamboo pole; even in cities random chickens peck at the side of busy street; virtually all businesses and homes have small alters with offerings to ancestors and local gods; as we approach Tet (Chinese New Year Feb. 3-5) business owners set out elaborate tables of food and other offerings and light Joss sticks to seek a prosperous and lucky New Year; rice paddies are squeezed in between buildings and alleys in all but the most urban areas of areas – Vietnam is the second largest rice producer in the world; it's very difficult for Vietnamese to get passports and leave the country, so while we foreigners can visit then, few of them can visit us (even if they could afford to do so); power outages are fairly frequent -- sometimes the power goes off 2 or 3 times a day; The majority of Vietnamese cannot afford a car or truck. As a result, here are some goods we’ve spotted being carried by local Vietnamese on motorbikes or cyclos – a few thousand eggs, a refrigerator, an armoir, long ladders, 300 coconuts, and a small billboard.
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