D12

We woke early to head to the Ninh Binh province, 100km from Hanoi. It took about 2 hours to get there. The beautiful drive through the countryside was worth it. Rice fields and mountains. This is the Vietnam you see in movies.

We arrived to the countryside and got on a small row boat on the river for for a few hours. The path down the river took us through villages in the mountain. Mom and dad saw a group of monkeys but I didn't. TB didn't like it much but she made it, all the while letting everyone know she was not enjoying the ride.

We had a beautiful lunch in the house of a local village. The family set their courtyard up for 10-20 guests and cook a meal for them. They had a huge garden and catfish pond in the front. The food and herbs were so fresh. We dined on papaya salad, spring rolls, soup, stir fried cabbage, fried chicken and fish, and of course a Vietnamese coffee for dessert/pick me up.

Then we got on a buffalo cart. Yes a buffalo cart where we rode a big cow through the countryside. Mom especially loved when the cow defecated on her shoe. It was actually pretty relaxing. Jason and the cow bonded as they walked side by side (Jason said he felt wrong being pulled by the cow and so walked next to the heifer in solidarity.)

On the ride Giang told us about the military requirement here. It's a compulsory two years. He told interesting stories of what happens when you do wrong.

1. A soldier's punishment for being late or not paying attention, they have to babysit an ant. The police officer will draw a circle on the ground and the soldier must keep the ant within the circle alive for the entire day.

2. Soldier gets caught gambling, they have to dig a hole at the top of the hill, run down the hill and collect a single cars then carry the card individually up the hill until the hole is filled

3. Swearing-they have to brush their teeth with a tube a toothpaste until it's empty, spreading one line of toothpaste on the brush at a time

We learned about the Vietnamese famine in 1944-1945, which occurred when Japanese were under rule and burned the rice fields. This caused starvation and death of 2 million people. When I explored my sources (Wiki) I learned that while it is true that up to 2 million people died of starvation, many factors contributed to the event. So we can still blame the French.

We ended the day at Hoa Lu, the first capital of Vietnam, in the 10th and 11th century. Giang was so excited to tell us the history. I've learned that Giang is such a history buff and this kid (he's 26) is accurate. I've fact checked him many times and he's always right.

He told us of the scandal of the royal family in the 11th century. Very interesting. The king Dinh Tiên Hoang has three children and the Queen Duong Van Nga was the mother of his youngest son (he had children from many different wives). So the king decided he wanted his middle son, not his eldest, to be the next king. The eldest son got upset and had the middle son killed. So then the Queen wanted her son to be the king so she had the King and eldest son poisoned. So her son, who was only 7 years old, became the heir and she reigned until he grew up. She then married the next emperor, becoming the only woman to be the queen twice from two different men. But remarrying in the culture is forbidden even if your husband is dead, so she is said to have committed adultery. There is a stone carving from the 11th century of a woman riding a dragon and there's a bird and rat on the carving. A bird and rat together symbolize adultery and the woman riding the dragon represents empowerment of women. And here's the best part. There are two temples side by side. The statues of the king and his sons are in one. The queen and her second husband are in the other. Every year they bring the statue of the queen to her first husband's temple and they beat her with a rope because she's an adulterer (nevermind she poisoned him).

TB slept the first hour of our two-hour car trip home then cried the last hour. Giang was so nice. We were supposed to stop to pick up our laundry* but he went and picked it up for us, and brought it to the hotel. He was probably as sick of her wailing as I was, although he is way too nice to admit it. Honestly I'm not that bothered by it but I just feel so bad for the poor girl who doesn't understand why I won't hold or feed her when she's in the car. We had been out and about for 13 hours and she was done. What a trooper. We retired early again.

*We learned the hard way the exorbitant price of having the hotel do your laundry. $300 poorer we vowed never to make the mistake again. We asked Giang for the hookup and he took it somewhere for us and had it done for $9!