We packed up and left our hotel at 8. We went to the market. They were selling vegetables, meat and various packaged toys etc from China. We walked through one section that was selling animal organs. I wasn’t feeling well to begin with and I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Here are pictures from the market (I’ll leave out the organ pictures but you get to see the dead chickens)
Next we went to a school for the local H’mong children. We talked to the teachers before going into the classrooms. There were 40 kids, ages 6 and 7, split into 2 classrooms. It’s mandatory for kids to go to school until the sixth grade. I tried to find out what happens to parents who don’t send their kids to school but didn’t get a good answer. Some kids walk as far as 7km to school, often alone. They are at school from 8 to 4 with a break for lunch and 2 recesses. They study 8 different subjects.
The kids were very well behaved and seemed a little overwhelmed to see us. Our guides had talked to the teachers before about what we should bring and they said socks and pens. We handed out the socks and pens to the kids. We sang “If You Are Happy And You Know It” to the kids. They followed with a song of their own.
After leaving the school we had a short walk to the bus. It was quite a nice day, one of the first days that we saw blue sky.
We got back on the bus. Our next stop was at the Chinese-Vietnamese border. Here are pictures from the border
While there we went to a temple. We have learned that a temple honors an important person such as a successful general. A pagoda honors Buddha. Here are pictures of the temple.
That evening we got back to Hanoi. Happily we arrived without having to face too much traffic. The remaining seven people had arrived for the second part of our trip. We met them and Mai took us out for avocado ice cream. I had coconut avocado ice cream and Rick had mango ice cream. Mine tasted mostly like vanilla but Rick’s was very mangoy. Both had chunks of avocado in the bottom.
On the bus back to Hanoi, Mai approached me and suggested that I go see a doctor the next day because I still wasn’t feeling well. I told her I’d let her know in the morning.