March 13: Hoi An

Another day in Vietnam – Another lesson in life. Joan and I got bikes from our hotel and rode down the road looking for rice patties this morning. We were successful at last and we ended up in a large field of rice patties with rice growing all around us. There were several people working in the fields and the first lady posed for pictures but couldn’t answer any of our questions. Then we came across a man pulling up rice plants and he spoke a little English so he was able to answer some of our questions. He showed us some rice almost ready to harvest and the could see the rice forming. Then we got a lesson in the Buddhist religion. There was a Japanese tomb close by and the man led us there and showed us how to pay out respects. We lit incense, we bowed 3 times, we planted 3 incense sticks here and one there and then he told me to give him some money for the alter. I had often seen the worshippers putting money on the alter to burn so I took out a 2000 VND bill (about 15 cents) and handed it to him. Quick as a wink he gave me back the 2000 and extracted a 100,000 VND dong bill from my wallet. I protested and he gave it back but then he made me go through so rubbing, kissing, and touching the gravestone until the bill was buried under the urn and I was wondering how come I’m such a sucker. When we finally parted company guess who made a beeline for the grave and emptied the urn. I never took my wallet out of my pants the rest of the day.