Wednesday we said good bye to Hi our driver and today we said good by to Son our guide. Son was very protective of us and always knew when we needed to rest or move on to another activity. Today we spent our time in the Old Quarter looking at the shops the locals would visit. Each street sold one kind of item. Paint, tools, jewelry, cleaning supplies and no one hustled their wares. The merchants sat quietly in front of their shop drinking tea, playing on their cells and generally ignored their prospective customers. No big box stores or chains just mom and pop. We finished our stay with a bowl of pho noodles and boarded a plane for Dong Hoi. This is a small city of about 500,000 and it is a charmer. Each street and intersection is decorated with brightly lit flower signs. The broader streets have fancy pink flashing lights and the bridges change color every 3 minutes. Nothing subtle about the Vietnamese. Mr. Vu our new guide and his enthusiastic driver delivered us to the Ocean Resort and Spa where we are staying. My supper was banana blossom salad and corn coup. Tasty and I managed to each most of the salad with my chop sticks. Tomorrow we are off to explore a cave and a river. I love the way this trip mixes things up.
