Ninh Binh to Ben Sung

Tuesday 29 October - 130 km on country roads...

...a lot of pineapple growing here...

 ...across some rivers that were not full of barges...

...apparently no law about driving an ox cart while talking on the cell phone...

 

A banner, in English on one side, Vietnamese on the other, in one of the villages we went through... Ho Chi Minh is revered as a liberator from colonial rule...

...and if I understand correctly, communism for Ho Chi Minh was not the objective; rather it was a means to achieve independence. We've seen several war cemeteries and memorials like this. For our generation in the west, the 'Vietnam War' was the one engaged in mainly by the United States in the 1960s and early 1970s. To the Vietnamese, it was the War of Independence, the struggle that began in the 1930s against France and continued until the country was re-unified after the fall of Saigon.

 

 

We've noticed throughout the country the schools, kids in uniform coming and going, playing in the school yards. The school buildings are all painted in this yellow colour, they appear clean and well-kept and so do the grounds, typically behind a wall/fence and this kind of gate. When I tried to take a photo of this one, the kids all wanted to get into it too...

We stopped for a cold drink in a small village this afternoon. Apart from kids and other people around being both curious - we are off the beaten track for foreigners - this lady crossed the road and went straight to Ursula, wanted to shake her hand. Then without a word of English from her made it very clear that she wished Ursula to stay and join her for dinner... what more can I say...