The afternoon here was pretty uneventful, I had a large cold beer (3.6% ABV) in the lobby purchased from the small store across the street for $.70, sat and watched the life of this village go by on the street just steps away. As the sun went down, the traffic slowed to almost nothing, and the streets seemed to be taken over by kids yelling and screaming and playing and laughing and just having a grand time running up and down. Somehow reminds me of the days when I was a kid in Oakland, kids were out in the evening playing in the street and nobody thought anything about it, it was the normal thing to do. Somehow I think it’s a little different in the states now, but here the kids prevailed on the streets after hours…

Chu took us to dinner at a friend’s house, a man he’s known since middle school. He and his girlfriend cooked us dinner, it was a fantastic meal! Very similar yet different from everything we’ve had so far; fried Anaheim peppers, beef and potatoes, tofu and Red peppers with pork, fried greens, pork with bell pepper, steam rice, and of course rice wine! After several toasts with the host, we all had a very nice time at his house! The house, by Western standards, was very small and simple, but the meal they cooked was very tasty and they seemed as happy to have us there as we were to be there.

One last philosophical comment… Being here, as with much of Asia I’ve seen, reminds me that most people are happy to have what they have. I puzzle that in my mind somehow in comparison to Americans who, for example, would take a perfectly good working and functional kitchen, completely tear it out and spend thousands upon thousands of dollars replacing it with the newest version of the same thing; simply because the original was “dated.” That contrast of affluence vs what is necessary is interesting to me…

Photos tomorrow…