I have been in Vietnam now for 4 days and it is so good to be here! I noticed straight away that Vietnam is hard at work (especially compared to Laos).

I had a hilarious time in Dien Ben Phu my first two days. Went to a war memorial museum (Dien Ben Phu was where France lost Vietnam) and it was full of one sidedness in the story (I think that can be classified as propaganda). Got taught Vietnamese by a Vietnamese boy genius who asked for nothing in return but to practice his English and French. And I got to participate in the local passtime of sitting out on the street and interacting with locals! Lots of people were eager to try and talk to me, through hand actions and basic phrases and it was awesome. It’s amazing how much you can communicate without knowing the same language.

In Sapa now and I have a huge hard on for these mountains! Sapa itself is gross and over developed but you just can’t beat the scenery here. I did a homestay and I was blown away (shocked, saddened) when the girl there (23) told me she had never heard of Dien Ben Phu, it’s only 180km away from Sapa and it is an important historical site for Vietnam. Be grateful for our education and our access to information and our ability to travel because most of the world is lacking in this.

View from up on a mountain I climbed all by ma self:

Misty morning at homestay

Flooded rice fields, getting ready to be planted

Laos had butterflies but Vietnam seems to have an amazing collection of beetles. This one is essentially a walking moustache:

The little Zay woman who adopted me and took me to her home. It was so random I couldn’t say no.