7 April Wednesay

I'm really not sure what's going on here. Maybe I'm just excited and want to make every moment count. After dinner last night, i went for a walk to the tourist area near the river. Home around 10 p, by the time i bathed and got ready for today, it wasd around midnight. Fell to sleep, but wide awke at 3... finallt at 5a I had to get up. Hopped on my bike and headed out of town. The fog was very thick, difficult for photos, so I kept riding. Finally the sun broke though. i stopped to take photos at a rice paddy. Eventually a wirey man came along on his bike. He yelled at me "Japanese tum" and pointed. I turned around my bike and followed him. He took me into the rice paddy, showing me the rice, baby rice and seeds and a snail. Finally down a stone path we arrived at the "tum", which happened to be a TOMB of a Japanese buddah. He lit incenese and we prayed together, he showed me the gun shots on the grave and pointed out several other things... not quite sure what. He took my photo and I took his video. I gave him 100,000 VND, but all he wanted was a cigarette. I told him it was bad for him and he coughed at me to prove he understood. Off he went. I stayed on a bit to take more photos. There was a beautiful lilly pad pond, still wet from the morning. I hear a strange noise behing me and turned to find a billion fluffy yellow ducklings on a morning breakfast mission. I thanked my guide, who was now long gone, for such a cool adventure before 7am.

Headed back to the hotel for breakfast and then off to the workshop for my first Bead class.

I am so excited and happy. Everything is going so right.