I don’t have much access to the internet so I apologize for the lump of information.  I’ll try to keep it to the more interesting things.

Within the last few days, I’ve eaten countless types of fruit, dragon fruit (thanh long), lychees (cay vai), mangosteen (mang coc), watermelon (qua dua hau), sour sop (mang cau xiem), rambutan (chom chom), jack fruit (mit),and some weird plums that look like pears and taste like asian pear, kind of. 

My favorite food is banh beo and my favorite drink is chanh day or fresh squeezed passion fruit juice.  I’ve had banh beo one time but since the market has changed location since the last time I was here, I can’t find the juice lady and her cart in order to get fresh juice.  So I’ve had to settle for passion fruit pulp in a plastic bottle.  Its no where near as good. 

Although the aunts have supplied food readily, they (3 out of the 4 so far) have encouraged me to not eat all my meals and especially not the fatty ones like fried tofu.  Its kind of confusing because they will place the communal bowl of food right in front of me but then also make a separate bowl of boiled veggies and a bowl of sauce from the fried dishes but without the actually fried stuff right next to it.  A blunt suggestion but without actually telling me to do it.  However, one aunt has told me to eat breakfast, a little lunch and no dinner so that I can surprise Vu with my slimness.  They always do it with a good heart and sometimes a sweet laugh at my expense.  No hard feelings.

I haven’t had too many adventures except for flying kites with the cousins.  They walk up the street past small family farms, past temples and dung dropped by water buffaloes and cows, walk across a very rickety bridge that is driven and walked across every day, and finally through a closed fence that they are worried I won’t be able to squeeze through, because of my size, and we get there. A road, fenced off from the village but with a perfect incline that allows one with little effort to catch enough wind and speed for their kite to fly.  It was fun.

One last thing I would like to share.  I rode to a neighboring town called Kado where two of my aunts lived and Vu’s dad was, on the back of a motorbike (aka small motorcycle).  I love riding on a motorbike and can’t wait for the opportunity to learn how to drive one.

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment. Take care until next time,

Marquita