To keep this interesting, I've decided to just give the day's highlights here and the rest of the story in the daily pictures I upload and caption.

As we were walking back to our hotel after visiting the Tan Dinh market, we were approached by a street vendor selling coconut water. He didn't try to sell us anything, just pointed us to the location of the war museum and kept pace with us as he carried across his shoulder a bamboo pole supporting a cooler at one end and several coconuts on the other. At one point he stopped and handed me his rig, pointing to my shoulder. "Picture, picture", he said. This man was half my size and carried his load with ease. I was astounded by the weight of his setup and how much it hurt to have it resting on my collarbone. See the picture? That's a grimace, not a smile. Anyway, in the end he handed me a coconut for being such a good sport and said, "Free, free" before he started to walk away. He went about 10 paces and realized I had no means to open the coconut. So he came back, deftly lopped off a small disc from the top of the fruit and handed it back to me with 2 straws. I guiltily gave him 10,000 VND (about 50 cents) and he went back the way he came. Never once did he ask me for money. Talk about a soft sell.

But the day's real highlight was dinner. Brenda and I always try to experience the local culture as much as possible. During our daily wanderings we scout out potential eating places, usually selecting the ones that are filled with locals chowing down. Last night we spotted one such place that seemed to specialize in hot pots - bowls of boiling broth into which the diner cooks fish, seafood and vegetables. We showed up tonight and were given a table and chairs that was adequate for most kindergarten sized children. I, however, had my knees rising 3 inches above the tabletop. The menu was hilarious and I've included pictures of some of the best pages in today's photos. We ordered the mixed hotpot, simply because there was no way we could ask for any more details on the other selections. Not long after we ordered, the waitress placed the heating element on our table: a retired metal wine bucket with ventilation holes cut in the sides filled with flaming charcoal. The wind was blowing in Brenda's direction and embers were floating her way. I stood at the ready, beer in hand, in case she ignited. Once the stock bowl was set on top we felt a lot safer and in the end, we were very happy with our selection that included shrimp, squid chicken and liver. I left the liver on the plate. Maybe next time I'll have the Blister fried snakehead fish.