Day 10 by Don	Day 1-2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, Back Home
	Today on the ride to Hoi An to catch a boat out to My Son, there is a song playing:    ”…paradise is the fantasy we see in the faces and places we visit…” It is most appropriate for where we are in Viet Nam.  Looking out of the taxi, I wonder how this place can mesmerize us and capture us so much.  It is just another land, with people the same as us.  They work and play the same as us.  Life is harder.  There are no 7-11's to run down to the corner to pick up the quick Pepsi.  There are only about 12 channels on the TV in the hotel that I have yet to watch.  But it captures us.  Sitting in the taxi looking out, I see a child on the side walk flying a kite...three guys sitting on a motor bike driving by us look as if they are drunk they are so happy smiling and talking...six women sitting around a hole in their front yard that has probably never had any maintenance or complaints from neighbors, just chatting...a couple grin from ear to ear and nod hi to us as they pass by in motor scooter...a dog in the middle of the road that doesn't move until we bang on the side of the car...the pot holes in the road that has everyone crying out exaggerated grunts in the back of the taxi...and our driver smiling back.  It will be sad to leave this place once again in the next couple of days.  Back to our places of CC&R's, right side, left sides of roads, big vehicles, MSNBC, endless work, back to the US.  Through our fantasy, this is paradise.
	We walked down to the river front near the market we walked through yesterday. Dogs are playing on the river side and one falls over the concrete bank into the water and can't get out.  I reach down the concrete wall and pull him out, and he instantly goes back to pestering the dog that knocked him in.  If he could, I am sure he would be smiling.  Lihn negotiates an hour ride up the river and comes with us on this part of our journey out to My Son.  It is an old boat that has rows of wooden chairs bolted to the floor, and has a flimsy plywood roof to protect us from the sun and rain.  We all sit down on our own row and we all watch silently as we motor up the river.  There are people out in small sampans fishing and harvesting food for which will most likely be their dinner.  Other boats are taxiing people up and down the river.  For the first part of the journey, the river is lined with houses...there are old poor shacks next to fancy hotels with surveillance cameras.  Nets line the shores and we see water buffalo and large white birds.  Our shoeless driver's face seems aged by the sun and weather, for what I think is only about 35.  He slows the water taxi down anytime someone takes out a camera...he displays the Vietnamese smile, from ear to ear, when I take his picture.  We pass several boats that are dredging sand from the river bottom...the boats are so low in the water, weighed down with sand.  Kids are playing in the water on the shores.
	We get to the bridge where we are to meet our driver for the rest of our trip and depart our happy water taxi driver.  Since the trip went faster than expected, we need to wait about 20 minutes for him to arrive.  We sit on the front porch at the table of a woman.  She walks past us without much notice and doesn't seem to mind at all.  We eat a local fruit that I purchase at a stand up the street.  Lihn heads back to Da Nang.
	An hour later, after traveling though many villages, past the most beautiful rice patties, many cemeteries, homes with their front doors open, we arrive in My Son.  My Son we are told translates word for word to "beautiful mountain".  It is indeed.  We walk up a small road, waiving off several cars that offer us a ride, the last 2-3 kilometers to the actual site.  Walking through the jungle, there are many noises from the many insects.  There is a meandering river that parallels the road that one can hear whenever there is a small waterfall in the covered brush.  We think we hear a monkey on the other side of the valley grunting.  Spiders are on the side of the road sitting in front of their hole of a dungeon they have created waiting for prey.  There are many ferns, and plants with flowers blooming.  I enjoy this quite walk the most, to get back into the forest with all the sounds, plants, insects and smells...so many memories of our race.
	After walking down a path that leads to nowhere, one I saw last time I was here but never tried, we arrive at the ruins.  Writing about them really can't do justice.  We walk the many ruins and think about what it would have looked when it was just built, who were the people, what were their lives like, did they also smile? The ruins are in a small valley surrounded by walls of about 500'.  There are ruins of buildings that are open that you can walk into that have many artifacts...and two US made bombs that survived intact from the destruction of past.  This place is a special place.  It is a quite place that you could spend hours just sitting and watching, it is peaceful in this valley.  I will miss it.
	We head back to Hoi An after spending about 1-1/2 hours here and again watch life as we drive by.  There is so much life in Vietnam.
	We quickly end our one day of planned vacation from work here and go though Hoi An and pick up our tailored clothes.  Linda won't model her summer dress for us.  Robyn has picked out a much too revealing shirt that will need to get approval of her mom before she can wear it.  I pick up my blue shirt Linda knows that Carolyn will love.  Deanna picks up her tailored shirt for her boy friend.  Robyn picks up her house coat from this very happy woman that remembers me from my last visit in January, who occasionally smacks me on the arm while joking.  I wish we could spend more time here but we have a driver waiting and need to get to the orphanage by 5:30PM.
	We head back to the hotel for a quick pit stop of pizza, and then head back out to the orphanage for another night of classes which I have never been able to attend because of the CAD classes.  The kids love Deanna, Robyn and Linda and come running out of their house and jump in their arms.  Linda is definitely attached to one and wants to take her back to the US.  The kids also warm up to Terry and me.  Deanna starts the class after asking for the kids to go get their books.  Terry and I sit in the back of class and help the kids as Deanna, Robyn and Linda run the class.  I get one child named Lai assigned to me that definitely hasn't had much discipline in his life.  I struggle to keep him on track and participating in class without him acting out more than most of the kids.  But he pulls my arm around him and demands to be held while I sit there trying to get him to participate.  These children need so much, yet what they are given more than one would expect from the limited staff here.  The staff, or should I say parents, love them tremendously.  They practice their numbers, and days of week.  Deanna is loving it and is so physical and animated while teaching the kids.  Linda tells everyone that I am 100 years old when practicing their numbers and then tells them that she is only 21.  Robyn is enjoying it and learning so much about life and giving of her time here.  Terry is amazed and enjoying it.
	After the classes, and the long goodbyes, pictures and multiple hugs from the kids on the busy roadside, we head back to the nice restaurant on the Me Khe beach.  Deanna departs after dinner back to the hotel, and the rest of us walk the 1.5 miles back on the beach and surf and glowing squid (we think) to our coffee shop with the awesome ice cream.  We joke about races, where we want to go, and the three of us serenade Robyn with the old song "On the day you were born, the angels got together and decide to create a dream come true"...much to her total embarrassment.  It has been a long day.  We are all enjoying our trip tremendously.
	Day 1-2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, Back Home